“How can public confidence be restored on the funding of political parties?”

The events of the last month have rightly left many Labour Party members, including myself, deeply angry about what has been going on regarding the registering of donations.

But no political party has a clean track record. The Tory Party faces questions about funding from unincorporated associates like the Midlands Industrial Council which obscure their source of funding. The Tory Deputy Chair Lord Ashcroft bankrolls his party – including the local Conservative Party in Harlow - but still refuses to confirm whether he is resident in the UK for tax purposes as required under the terms of his peerage. And the Lib Dems received their largest ever donation from someone subsequently convicted and jailed for fraud and they have yet to return the money. 

As long as all political parties are reliant for their funding on the very wealthy there will be problems so we need reform. This should involve a cap on donations and a cap on expenditure at local and national level each year. The funding “arms race” needs to be tackled.

We’ve seen the evidence of this in Harlow where the Conservative Party has received £143,229 in the last few years from businesses with registered offices in Tel Aviv, New York and the British Virgin Islands. This cannot be right.

Reform also has to include some public funding of political parties. If we want to stop the very wealthy having influence we need to ensure parties can function. Political parties aren’t perfect but go to any country where they don’t exist and the situation is worse.

To achieve these kind of reforms we need cross party consensus. Such proposals were on the table under Hayden Philipps. Labour and the Lib Dems agreed in principle. The Tories walked away. They should come back to the discussions.