Labour’s foreign interference inquiry needs to go *much* further

Plus: Mark Galeotti on Russia’s foreign political influence, the war in Ukraine and how crime organises the world

Nathan Gill was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison

Finally, Keir Starmer has woken up to the threat of foreign influence in British politics.

Yes, there is cynical party politics at play in Tuesday’s “urgent” inquiry. It is poll-topping Reform, after all, whose former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, was recently convicted of accepting bribes to push pro-Russian narratives. But political expediency does not make the inquiry wrong. It is welcome - and badly needed.

There is much to applaud in its terms of reference. The inquiry will examine political finance laws and the safeguards against foreign funding of parties and campaigns. That scrutiny is long overdue.

But the review needs to go much further if it is to tackle how foreign interference actually works - and properly protect British democracy.

That is why I spoke to author and journalist Mark Galeotti, one of the foremost experts on contemporary Russia and Russian political influence operations. As he explains in our Democracy for Sale video discussion (below), Moscow’s efforts are far less about bribing politicians and far more about sowing discord and division.

Putin’s Russia has become adept at exploiting existing fractures in western societies, including Britain’s, particularly through social media.

“The Russians have no magic mind control powers - but what they can do is radicalise,” Galeotti says. AI has only supercharged the ability of Russia - and others - to shift political narratives at scale.

Galeotti also highlights a major omission: the role of Silicon Valley tech barons. These figures are not only seeking to interfere in British politics themselves (hello, Elon), but their platforms are central to modern foreign influence operations.

Galeotti is “not convinced” that the foreign interference inquiry, led by former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft, “will have the remit or the resources to go into that.”

I share his concerns. The inquiry is explicitly ‘forward-focused’ — meaning no investigation into interference during the 2016 Brexit referendum, and no follow-up to the long-suppressed Russia report.

But the problem runs deeper. We also need to rethink political interference in general. That starts with money.

By all means, let’s stop Russian money bankrolling our politics. But is it really acceptable that home-grown donors can give unlimited sums - even when, as in the case of Reform’s mega-donor Christopher Harborne, they live in Thailand?

That is why we need a cap on political donations. It is essential for protecting democracy - and it is popular. More than 80,000 people have already signed our 38 Degrees petition calling for one.

We also need to know who is funding think tanks and tighter rules on paid-for foreign trips for parliamentarians. As we reported earlier this year, Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel have spent tens of thousands of pounds on visits for MPs.

We need to overhaul Britain’s threadbare lobbying laws. As our undercover investigation with Led By Donkeys showed, foreign actors can buy access to MPs and ministers for paltry sums.

And then there is political spending: parties face caps only in election years. They can spend unlimited amounts the rest of the time, and even election-year limits - set at £34 million - are far too high.

Spending limits must be reduced and, as Sam Jeffers at Who Targets Me has argued, we need “always-on” political spending reporting.

The government now has a chance to act. The foreign interference inquiry will report at the end of March, just as the Elections Bill is likely to be moving through Parliament. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to clean up British politics.

So far, Labour has tinkered at the margins. But Starmer needs to be far bolder. If he truly believes foreign interference is a threat, he must act decisively - by capping donations, reforming lobbying laws and ending Britain’s cash-for-access politics.

For too long, politicians of all parties have known the system is broken, but benefited too much from it to fix it. “The system works for me,” is the winner’s refrain. Without real checks, real enforcement and real penalties, Britain’s fragile democracy will remain open to abuse.

2026 will be a crucial year for defending British democracy — from big money, hidden influence and foreign interference. That is why, at Democracy for Sale, we will keep pushing for change. Our investigations have already helped force legal reforms and won a British Journalism Award - but there is much more to do.

We will continue exposing the threats to British democracy and working with those who want to fix a broken system. And as the year draws to a close, I want to thank you, our readers. None of this happens without you.

Democracy for Sale depends on the support of its readers. If you haven’t yet joined us yet, now’s the time.

We’re pursuing major investigations, mounting critical legal challenges and digging deep into dark money and hidden influence. Join the fightback.

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As mentioned above, I was delighted to be joined by Mark Galeotti for the final Democracy for Sale video of the year.

Mark is renowned for his incisive commentary on Russia, Ukraine and transnational crime. Alongside discussion of the UK’s new foreign interference inquiry, we talked about Russia’s geopolitical ambitions, Trump’s ‘national’ security strategy and the future of the war in Ukraine.

We also discussed Mark’s excellent new book, Homo Criminalis: How Crime Organises the World, which I recently reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. I think it’s worth reproducing part of that review here, as it closely chimes with our conversation:

There is also a tendency to see corruption as a developing-world problem. When British politicians give seats to political donors in the House of Lords or dole out lucrative “VIP” contracts during Covid, these actions are dismissed by some as bagatelles. But such complacency downplays the role played by rich nations in the washing of the world’s dirty money.

Cities such as London, Dubai and Frankfurt have become “financial rookeries”, cleaning ill-gotten gains while asking the minimum of questions. In 2022, Denmark’s largest financial institution, Danske Bank, paid US authorities $2 billion for its role in laundering the proceeds of crime and corruption, having pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud. The proceeds of this money-laundering – from taxes paid by banks to money spent in high-end restaurants – often flow into the “normal” economy.

As I wrote at the end of my review in the TLS, Galeotti pulls no punches

our banks are full of dirty money, our foreign policy depends on deals with kleptocrats, our supply chains are packed with counterfeit, our glittering cities are built on foundations of stolen sand and speculative fraud, and our consumer goods and raw materials alike are produced by trafficked labour.

Reading Homo Criminalis, it is hard to disagree.

I hope you enjoy our discussion. We cover a huge amount of ground - from state formation to cryptocurrency - and it is worth listening out for Mark’s explanation of why he “would take RT over GB News anytime.”

Thank you again for all your support for Democracy for Sale’s videos this year. In recent months, I’ve spoken at length with Alan Rusbridger, Anne Applebaum, George Monbiot and many others. All the videos are available on the Democracy for Sale YouTube channel. Do subscribe, if you haven’t already - and watch this space. We have much more planned for 2026.