Electoral Commission Committee – in the House of Commons at on 16 January 2025.
Joe Powell
Labour, Kensington and Bayswater
If the Commission will make an assessment of the potential merits of banning foreign donations to UK political parties.
Alistair Carmichael
Chair, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Chair, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
What recent assessment the Commission has made of the adequacy of the rules on donations by non-UK citizens to political parties.
Jeremy Wright
Conservative, Kenilworth and Southam
When establishing the political finance regime, Parliament’s explicit intention was to ban foreign donations. However, limitations of the current law mean that it is possible for money from foreign sources to enter the UK electoral system through donations from UK companies. For that reason, the Electoral Commission has called for the Laws around company donations to be strengthened, to ensure that parties cannot accept money from companies that have not made enough in the UK to fund their donation or loan, to impose a duty to carry out enhanced “know your donor” checks, and to improve transparency over donations made through unincorporated associations.
Joe Powell
Labour, Kensington and Bayswater
In recent weeks we have seen the unedifying spectacle of Opposition parties trying to curry favour with one particular foreign billionaire. However, this issue is much bigger than Elon Musk. Transparency International UK estimates that £1 in every £10 in our system—£150 million since 2021—comes from questionable or unknown sources. When will these proposals come forward, so that we can debate them in the House and tackle this threat to our democracy?
Jeremy Wright
Conservative, Kenilworth and Southam
As the hon. Member will understand, proposals to change the law must come from the Government—with whom, I gently suggest, he has more influence that I do—but he is right that transparency is crucial. It is important that we understand the source of the donations, so that the political parties that accept them can be properly held to account.
Alistair Carmichael
Chair, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Chair, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Surely, even in these febrile times, it should not be difficult to build a consensus around the proposition that foreign money should not be in British politics. Can we not get the parties together now to make the strongest possible package of reforms, rather than reacting when it is too late?
Jeremy Wright
Conservative, Kenilworth and Southam
As I mentioned, there is a consensus in this House that foreign donations should not play a part in British politics, but there are gaps in the law. As I mentioned, the Electoral Commission believes that those gaps can be properly closed through further legislation. It is speaking to the Government about that, and I know that it would be happy discuss the matter further with the right hon. Gentleman, if he so wishes.
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