UK Political Donations Need a Hard Cap, Not a Loophole

MONEY doesn't talk, it screams. And right now, when it comes to our democracy, the impact is deafening.

The man with the biggest megaphone is Thai-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. His £12million in donations to Reform last year were one-fifth of all political donations. One man who owns a fifth of our democracy.

Nigel Farage says he doesn't ask for anything in return, but can it really be a total coincidence that the Reform leader has become so fiercely pro-crypto?

This is not just a Reform problem. The extent to which the Tory governments of recent years kowtowed to the rich and powerful became almost farcical. In 2014, the wife of former Russian deputy finance minister, oligarch Vladimir Chernukhin, paid £160,000 to play tennis with Boris Johnson, presumably not to improve her backhand. The Conservative Party also accepted £2.5million in donations from property developers who build blocks of flats covered in cladding, after the catastrophic Grenfell Tower fire.

Vulnerable

And progressive people (of which I guess I'm one) often have a blind spot. We think that because we are trying to do good things, we are somehow immune to the influence of money and power.

Unfortunately this isn't true. Power does corrupt. We do-gooders are human too. And we are no less vulnerable. We like free tickets. We like free clothes. A report by think-tank Autonomy Institute identified companies that have recently donated to Labour and were awarded contracts worth almost £138million.

Trump's America shows just how bad things can get when money takes over every aspect of politics. We are on that slippery slope and we need to get off fast.

This could be an incredible legacy for Keir Starmer. It fits with his sense of integrity and his own commitment to cleaning up politics. But he is on the verge of screwing it up by failing to understand how money works; by lacking the boldness to really do the job properly; and by being too cute when it comes to Labour's own perceived (not real) self-interest.

Labour is committed to introducing a cap on foreign donations of £100,000 and a moratorium on crypto donations. But this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of global finance.

These mega-donors are world champions at shifting money around. In response to these policies Christopher Harborne brazenly told the Telegraph "Fine, in that case I'll give even more money." Ben Delo, another Reform mega-donor who is based in Hong Kong, said he would just move back to the UK for a bit to keep the cash flowing. We need to clean up Westminster. There is only one solution: a low and hard cap on all political donations. Without it, the system will continue to reward those with the deepest pockets, not the strongest arguments. It's time to deliver.

A ban on foreign and crypto donations are both easy for mega-donors to swerve. Crypto is easily turned into cash.

Some MPs have proposed a £1m cap. This new polling suggests a cap at such an astronomically high level would be met with a very confused response from the public who favour a cap 100 times smaller. Let's not make democracy a millionaires' club.

www.CleanUpWestminster.org

The Hypocrisy Gap

Richard Tice once had strong views on interference in British politics. As co-chair of the post-Brexit Leave Means Leave group, he objected to billionaire philanthropist George Soros helping fund the anti-Brexit Best for Britain campaign saying: “He doesn’t live here, he doesn’t pay taxes here. What right has he got to interfere with our democracy and try and overthrow the government?“

Today, Tice appears to have no such concerns, with nearly two-thirds of Reform donors last year attributed to foreign-based sources. He also welcomed a potential $100million from Elon Musk, saying: “If Mr Musk can legally donate... we would be delighted.”