Big money wrecked US politics. Now it could ruin ours |
This month’s £9m donation to Reform UK by cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne is a sign that rich men and their money are breaking into British politics. Of the £85m given to the parties by private donors in 2023, two thirds came from just 19 mega-donors, according to the watchdog organisation Transparency International UK.
Now a number of campaign groups are urging Communities Secretary Steve Reed to go further than Labour intends on party funding when the Government introduces new electoral reforms next year. Transparency International warns that a money-driven “doom loop is slowly destroying our democracy”.
Such gloom may be premature. By comparison, US political expenditure is measured in tens of billions of dollars. Still there is no doubt that the British system is wide open to potential exploitation and distortion – with some powerful people anxious to make their money talk to the rest of us.
In this country there is no upper limit on how much an individual or company can give to a party which it supports. Spending and the pressing need for the funds to stay viable are both creeping up. Our elections are getting more expensive – it is estimated that more cash was spent in 2024 in real terms than at any other election since 1880, the era of rotten boroughs.
The Government is being urged to clean things up as part of the legislation due in 2026 to extend the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds by introducing a cap on the size of........