Party Funding

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Defence – in the House of Commons at 3:33 pm on 26 March 2012.

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Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office 3:33, 26 March 2012

With permission Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement on party funding.

As set out in the coalition Government’s programme, party funding in Britain needs to be reformed. The last major attempt at reform came in the cross-party talks between 2006 and 2008, chaired by Sir Hayden Phillips, which I led for the Conservative party. Mr Straw led for the Labour party and the present Parliamentary Secretary, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, my hon. Friend Mr Heath, led for the Liberal Democrats. The origin of those talks was a genuine desire on the part of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister—[Hon. Members: “ Where is he?”]—and Tony Blair and Sir Menzies Campbell to resolve these issues, which were disfiguring the face of British politics. The expectation was that there could be some increase in state funding if there were a cap on donations, but crucially a cap applying to all donations, whatever their source. Those talks came agonisingly close to securing agreement for long-term reform, but in the event agreement proved impossible. That was a serious missed opportunity. Since then, the need for change has become more, not less, pressing. Accordingly, at the last election, all three main parties promised in their manifestos to make progress.

This Government have an explicit commitment in the coalition agreement to

“pursue a detailed agreement on limiting donations and reforming party funding in order to remove big money from politics”.

It was helpful when, in the early months of the coalition Government—[ Interruption. ]