Political Parties (Funding)

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 10:18 am on 8 November 2005.

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Photo of Charles Hendry Charles Hendry Shadow Minister (Higher Education and Intellectual Property) 10:18, 8 November 2005

Tax relief is a more consistent approach because it is available to anyone when giving money to charity. The organisation can claim tax back on the contribution. That is the most consistent way forward. It ties in directly with the contribution of the individual rather than supporting a blanket contribution from the Exchequer to the individual actions of political parties, which would cause a more fundamental problem for the reasons that I have outlined.

The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome spoke about problems in respect of caps on contributions when one person funds a political party. We must be careful about such matters. He may have had in mind James Goldsmith and the funding of the Referendum party, which was very much a one-man party. My worry about such an approach is that the party ended up getting well over 1 million votes. It was clearly in touch with what people felt, and which they did not consider was represented by other parties. I absolutely oppose what he stood for, but to say that an individual who passionately believes in something should not be allowed to support or set up a political party to carry forward views that were not advocated by the mainstream parties is a fundamental denial of people's democratic rights.

Even if we disagreed with what James Goldsmith stood for, the fact that more than 1 million people voted for him showed that he was touching an important vein of opinion in society. However, had his party been reliant on state funding or had there been caps on donations, that could not have happened. Such matters represent important issues in our democracy.

All of us in our constituency lives come across a range of voluntary organisations that are struggling for funding. They have to find new projects because they cannot receive funding for older projects. After three years, funding dries up and they become fed up with the form filling. People who work in the voluntary organisations will say, "Will you explain why you consider that it is more important to support political funding through a block grant than it is to support us in our work for the homeless and the elderly in other sections of society?" There will be tremendous anger over block grants. Tax relief is a different approach. It recognises the contributions that people have made and it is tied in to individual decisions rather than block grants.

We are all keen to know what the Minister has to say, because we have waited a long time for a response to the report. I am sorry to have detained hon. Members for an extra few minutes, while other parties will be spending an extra £1,000 to hear what the Minister has to say in her overdue response.