Cleaning up political donations

Bobby Dean argues for a fairer, more transparent system for funding political parties.

There has been quite a lot of discussion this year about political parties and politicians getting substantial sums of money as donations. 

All parties depend on donations to fund their campaigns, including the Liberal Democrats, but I know that many people have real concerns about the lack of transparency and potential for rich donors to influence policy.

I believe that politics should work for everyone, not just those with the deepest pockets. We need to clean up our system for funding parties and politicians. At the moment, the UK still has no overall cap on how much a single donor can give to a political party. That cannot be right. Very large donations risk giving wealthy individuals and organisations disproportionate influence, and they understandably damage public trust in our democracy. 

The Liberal Democrats have long argued for a fairer, more transparent political system. We broadly supported the Representation of the People Bill because it included important reforms that Liberal Democrats have campaigned for over many years. However, we were clear that it did not go far enough on the role of big money in politics.

That is why Liberal Democrat MPs tabled amendments to introduce an annual cap on donations to political parties. Current Liberal Democrat policy also supports a total year-round cap on political spending alongside a donation cap, including gifts to politicians, so that our democracy is not distorted by big money. 

I have also raised in Parliament the problem with donations being routed through companies. Whilst this is often legitimate, indeed I have received donations like this before, it can be an issue when the ownership of particular firms is opaque. Any tightening of the rules has to address this problem too or it will leave open a massive loophole. 

I will continue to support reforms that strengthen transparency, limit the influence of large donors, and help restore confidence that politics is being run in the public interest. 

– Bobby Dean