Over on the Democracy For Sale site, former Lib Dem MP for Cambridge and electoral commissioner, David Howarth writes about the problem of big money in British politics and suggests three ways to combat it:
The £72 million donation by two crypto-billionaires to Reform UK, a party that just happens to have promoted tax cuts for crypto-billionaires, has prompted some previously complacent political commentators to notice the enormous flaws in Britain’s political funding regime. Those flaws are long-standing and simply stated.
No cap exists on donations to political parties and existing controls on political spending are riddled with loopholes. For example, spending caps only apply in the year that precedes a general election and they fail to include obviously political expenditure, such as employing national party staff.
The combined effect of these flaws is that British politics is wide open to hijack by the ultra-rich.
You can read the full article here.
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One Comment
We don’t need a cap on donations – we need a cap on total spending by each political party, both on routine running costs each year and on specific election campaigns.
Do that and all parties will be on a level playing field no matter how much they receive in donations.