Party Political Funding

Oral Answers to Questions — Constitutional Affairs – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 24 January 2006.

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Photo of Barbara Keeley Barbara Keeley Labour, Worsley 2:30, 24 January 2006

How much was paid from public funds to the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour parties in 2004 and 2005.

Photo of Harriet Harman Harriet Harman Minister of State (Department of Constitutional Affairs), Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee

Over the past two years, out of public funds, the Conservative party received around £4.5 million, the Liberal Democrats received around £2 million and the Labour party received around £500,000.

Photo of Barbara Keeley Barbara Keeley Labour, Worsley

Many people do not trust the idea of multi-millionaires giving donations to political parties for their campaigns, yet in election campaigns, all the parties try to match campaign spending by the other parties. Obviously, that needs to be controlled. What chance does the Minister think there may be for some all-party proposals to tackle that funding issue?

Photo of Harriet Harman Harriet Harman Minister of State (Department of Constitutional Affairs), Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I know that there is concern around the House that voters should be sure that what makes a difference is their vote on the ballot paper, not political parties, whatever side of the House they sit on, being pushed into the arms of millionaires or big companies. We have brought forward proposals at least to make the position more open and transparent with donations having to be declared, but paradoxically the more the public know about donations, the more concern grows. We need to consider and discuss that matter.

Photo of David Burrowes David Burrowes Conservative, Enfield, Southgate

Last Wednesday, The Independent reported that Labour is considering a big extension of state funding for political parties to combat allegations of sleaze. Surely, rather than inflicting more misery on the hard-pressed taxpayer, the answer is to cut out any suggestions of cash for favours such as would arise from the proposal for the Prime Minister's chief of staff also to be involved in Labour party fund raising. Should not a clear line be drawn to prevent party political appointees from being involved in fund raising and having Executive powers over career civil servants?

Photo of Harriet Harman Harriet Harman Minister of State (Department of Constitutional Affairs), Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee

I ask the hon. Gentleman to try to approach this matter in the way in which my hon. Friend Barbara Keeley and I have. This is not just a problem for one political party or just for this country, either. All democracies have to think about how political parties, which play such an important role in democracy, can obtain adequate funds and campaign effectively. This is something that the Conservative Front-Bench team under its new leader is thinking about. It has been debated by the Liberal Democrats. We will be thinking and talking about it on a cross-party basis but there are no immediate proposals that I can tell the House about.

Photo of Tony Wright Tony Wright Labour, Cannock Chase

These are huge sums of public money and they are designed to enable Opposition parties to prepare policies to put to the people at general elections. When an Opposition party says that the policies that it developed were complete rubbish and that it now wants to reverse them, should there not be some sort of public refund?

Photo of Harriet Harman Harriet Harman Minister of State (Department of Constitutional Affairs), Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee

I can see the point that my hon. Friend is trying to make, but to get back to the main point, we must have the right funding for parties and we must have openness. We must ensure that individual voters know that it is their vote that counts, not donations from big business.

Photo of Oliver Heald Oliver Heald Shadow Secretary of State (Justice), Shadow Secretary of State

Is it not of even more concern that the Government are already spending more than £500 million every year in Whitehall on spin? Is the Minister really saying that Labour deserves more taxpayers' cash, which is what The Independent was suggesting, when the Government have trebled the cost to taxpayers of special advisers? Now there are double the numbers and they are costing £5 million a year. Advertising costs have also trebled—up to £200 million a year—and public relations costs have gone up to a massive £333 million a year. Can she justify troubling the taxpayer for even more money when the Government are already spending all that money on spinning their policies?

Photo of Harriet Harman Harriet Harman Minister of State (Department of Constitutional Affairs), Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee

The hon. Gentleman has not said whether he agrees with the public funds already being spent on the Conservative party to enable it, as my hon. Friend Dr. Wright said, to develop policies in opposition. I hope that we can have a sensible discussion, rather than political point scoring. The hon. Gentleman has mixed up the issue of activity on behalf of the Government in public information campaigns and suchlike, which are subject to the scrutiny of this House but do not come under my Department, and the important issue of the infrastructure of political parties.