Thursday, December 19, 2024
Protecting our democracy
The paper says that Vijay Rangarajan, chief executive of the elections watchdog, has said that linking donations to political parties to the UK profits of companies owned by foreigners was one of the urgent changes needed to retain the trust of voters:
The move, which the Guardian understands is being considered by the government, could cap the amount that Musk, the world’s richest man, could donate through the British arm of his social media company X (formerly Twitter).
Twitter UK’s latest publicly available accounts show pre-tax profits of £8.5m in 2022, on a turnover of £205m, substantially lower than the $100m (£80m) that Musk was initially said to be willing to donate.
After a meeting with Musk this week at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said the multi-billionaire was giving “serious thought” to bankrolling the party.
The prospect has been met with alarm inside the Labour government, with sources suggesting that it would “not be within the spirit” of the existing party funding rules and that it underlined the need for the legislation to be tightened up.
Electoral law in the UK currently stipulates that all donations and loans to political parties worth more than £500 should come from “permissible donors” registered in the UK. These include voters on the electoral register or companies registered in the UK.
The watchdog also wants political parties to be legally bound to make enhanced checks on donations to assess their risk, and to ensure those who donate to “unincorporated associations” are permissible donors.
“It’s crucial that UK voters have trust in the financing of our political system, so they need to see how parties and campaigners are financed and how they spend that money at elections,” Rangarajan told the Guardian.
“Our current laws include checks on the permissibility of donations and are intended to provide transparency over the source of political donations. But the system needs strengthening, and we have been calling for changes to the law since 2013, to protect the electoral system from foreign interference.
“We recommend three key changes: limit company donations to the money that they have made in the UK; legally require parties to conduct know-your-donor checks on donations to assess and manage their risks; and ensure those who donate to unincorporated associations are permissible donors. We are discussing these proposals with the government.”
Let's hope that the government listens and acts.
