At Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on 8 January, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey questioned the prime minister on party donations:
While the honourable member for Clacton may miss out on his big allowance from Elon Musk, the spectre of the richest man in the world trying to buy a British political party should give us all pause for thought.
And after years of the Conservatives taking millions of pounds of Russian money, will the prime minister now work with us to bring in long overdue reforms of party funding. So that power in this country lies with the voters and not wealthy overseas oligarchs.
Musk is reportedly considering a donation of up to $100m to Reform, although he has now called for its leader Nigel Farage to resign over a disagreement about far-right fascist Tommy Robinson.
The thing is, at PMQs Keir Starmer shrugged off the pressing issue of rich people buying our politics, saying:
I think we all had a smile… when the honourable member said how cool it was to have the support of Musk, only for Musk to say he should be removed just a few hours later… Of course we’re looking at the question of funding more generally.
PMQs: obvious why Starmer’s not bothered
It’s no wonder Starmer is so blasé about the corrupting impact of large political donations in politics. Since he became leader in April 2020, the Labour Party has accepted a total of 61 donations above £100,000 from individuals or corporations.
That includes 11 donations of one million pounds or more from an individual or corporation. In turn, those 11 donations total a whopping £23.6m from just a handful of people. And the corrupting influence can be seen through the £4m from Quadrature Capital.
This a tax haven-based hedge fund with investments in weapons, fossil fuels and private healthcare. Indeed, Labour has even appointed Rachel Kyte as its climate envoy. She also sits on the advisory board of Quadrature Charitable Foundation.
By contrast, throughout Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership from 2015-2019 the party only received a total of five donations above £100,000 from individuals or corporations. Instead, donations from those other than trade unions tended to be small amounts from various members of the electorate and funds driven from a mass increase in party membership.
Too bad much of the British electorate slept on the opportunity of making Corbyn prime minister.
And the situation is worse than super rich individuals and corporations buying influence through donations. Recent research from Transparency International has found that one in every ten pounds donated to UK parties comes from outright dubious sources.
That includes where corruption, cash for access, fraud or money laundering has been specifically alleged or proven. The organisation recommends capping donations from individuals and corporations at £10,000 per year.
Such a change would be most welcome. It would be a huge step towards de-toxifying UK politics.
Featured image via Guardian News – YouTube
