This week, MPs debated the Ten Minute Rule Bill on dark money, put forward by APPG for Fair Elections Member Manuela Perteghella. The bill, which passed its first reading unopposed on Wednesday, would:
- Put a cap on political donations;
- Launch a review into where this cap should be set;
- Restrict donations made by foreign nationals through UK companies.
Perteghella describes the Political Donations Bill as a move to “take big money out of British politics.” Foreign billionaires, she warns, have turned UK elections into a “bidding war for influence.”
“This Bill is simple in its aims, to ensure that it is the people of this country – not the deep pockets of foreign billionaires, oligarchs or corporate interests – who decide our country’s future in elections and referendums,”
she said to the Commons Chamber on Wednesday. Read her full speech on Hansard here.
It echoes what APPG for Fair Elections Chair Alex Sobel previously told BBC News:
“Democracy is about everybody having equal agency in our elections. And so one individual effectively donating the vast majority of a party’s election expenditure is deeply unfair and against all of our principles. Unfortunately, it’s currently legal.”
It’s important to note that while Ten Minute Rule Bills often serve to highlight pressing issues, they rarely become law without substantial support from the government. That just makes it even more crucial to rally behind voices like Perteghella’s – and the other members of the APPG for Fair Elections – in waking Starmer up from his complacency.
We know for a fact that the public is fed up with money in politics, and that the will for campaign finance reform is there:
- Just 13 per cent of Britons say that campaign finance is sufficiently transparent;
- Only 17 per cent feel that our elections system is safe from corruption and fraud;
- Nearly three quarters of Britons now say that the government is “rigged in favour of the rich and influential.”
- Even half of Reform UK voters support imposing a cap on political donations
Long before Elon Musk floated his donation [of a staggering and distorting US$100m] to Reform UK, Open Britain and its allies were advocating for a campaign finance system that reflects basic democratic values: one person, one vote.
Taken alongside the successful ten minute rule bill on proportional representation, these efforts in parliament are making it crystal clear to the government that the public and their representatives want a democratic revival, and they want it now.
The APPG for Fair Elections and its members are the voice of reason in parliament – how long will Starmer hold off on delivering a functioning democracy?
What you can do! Thank your MP for giving their support at the first reading…it won’t hurt to assume that they did as it will shame them (hopefully) if they didn’t! Tell your MP you want them to back the Bill all the way. Write to your local newspaper or call in to radio programmes to explain why this Bill needs to become law. Support Open Britain in its campaign for positive democratic change.
