Party Funding

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Defence – in the House of Commons at 3:39 pm on 26 March 2012.

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Photo of Francis Maude Francis Maude The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office 3:39, 26 March 2012

I would be delighted if we were to do that. It is a long-established convention that reform of party funding proceeds by way of consensus. That was definitely the view that Mr Straw, my hon. Friend Mr Heath and I took when we conducted previous discussions on this topic. We need to have another try at that. It is unsatisfactory for the party in power to legislate unilaterally to change the party funding system. If at all possible, we must proceed by consensus, as before, so we will strain every fibre to try to achieve consensus.