Revealed: Britain’s broken election laws have just got even worse
This week the government made it even easier for dark money, foreign influence and the proceeds of crime to bankroll British politics
There has never been more money in British politics. Since the start of last year, Labour has raised more than £25 million. The Tories have taken in almost £40 million.
And now the parties can spend more than ever before.
On Monday, the government rushed through massive increases in spending and donations thresholds - without holding a single parliamentary vote and with, seemingly, no media coverage (the eagle-eyed Seth Thevoz excepted.)
But these new rules matter.
They mean that parties can spend more during election campaigns. They also mean more donors will be hidden from the public.
From now on parties can accept donations of £11,180 - up from £7,500 - without publishing the donor’s name. That may not sound like a dramatic difference, but it’s actually a lot of money for British politics.
Just £12,000 bought Richard Desmond a seat next to housing minister Robert Jenrick at a Tory fundraising dinner in 2020, where the property developer was able to successfully lobby for a planning decision to be overturned, saving himself an estimated £50m. The new rules mean a family with two kids could donate almost fifty grand anonymously.
The government’s own legislation admits that “a full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.”
This is a truly extraordinary statement. Legislation that will significantly increase the amount of dark money in British politics is not judged to have any impact on, well, anything.
In the Commons, Conservative MP Jacob Young, a junior minister in the department for levelling up - which is now in charge of British election laws - explained the changes as merely a reflection of “historic inflation” in the 20 years since the limits were initially set.
This is both true and deeply disingenuous. Why? Because while inflation has risen sharply over two decades, the Committee on Standards in Public Life had previously called for the limits to be lowered.
And, even more importantly, political spending and donations thresholds have been increased by the very same government that is completely failing to enforce British political finance laws and which has refused to close the many loopholes that allow dark money to pollute the political system.
As many of you will remember, last year the Conservative government introduced the Elections Act. This did a lot of pretty bad things, at the same time as it chose not to do anything about a lot of pretty bad things.
Probably the most eye-catching measure was the introduction of voter ID.
More than £4.5m was spent advertising voter ID online and off, according to a Freedom of Information request that I sent during the summer. Nevertheless, an Electoral Commission study found that hundreds of thousands of voters could be excluded at the next general election, with voter ID law disproportionately affecting poorer people, minorities and those with disabilities.
How did the department for levelling up respond? It said the rollout of voter ID was “very encouraging”.
Voter ID is the start but not the end of the Elections Act’s calumnies. The legislation also gave ministers powers to set the strategy and to guide the work of the Electoral Commission. Forget the ‘cradle of parliamentary democracy’ talk, Britain no longer has an independent election regulator.
It’s hard not to see the move as a victor’s punishment for the Commission’s decision to investigate Vote Leave’s breaches of electoral law during the 2016 Brexit referendum. It’s equally hard to conceive of a similar investigation happening again.
The Elections Act also removed the Commission’s power to initiate criminal proceedings. The watchdog had not used this power but - as Spotlight on Corruption has pointed out - its removal is likely to weaken its investigative and compliance activities.
Britain will go into the next general election with no law enforcement body at a national level overseeing the political system. The National Crime Agency has no election finance expertise and has made it clear it’s not interested in developing any. (Perhaps burned by its failed investigation into Brexit donor Arron Banks.)
As the Electoral Commission has noted, UK elections law “is silent on whether or not money obtained from crime would make a political contribution unlawful.”
Good job there’s no evidence of political donations being linked to the proceeds of criminal acts then 😬
There’s more. The Elections Act introduced measures that will allow up to 3.5m British nationals living overseas to be added to the electoral register. Not a bad thing in itself, but the effect is you add more burdens on the electoral system at the same time as you weaken its checks and balances.
Foreign donors can still give money through UK-registered companies - even if the firm hasn’t made any profits.
The government has also refused to do anything about shadowy unincorporated associations giving anonymous money to politics - despite repeated warnings, including from notorious pinkos such as, eh, former MI5 director Lord Evans.
Indeed, while most of the new donations and spending limits passed this week come into force in the new year, for unincorporated associations the legislation is explicitly backdated to October 1 2023.
A cynic might wonder if there’s any connection between this and the huge sums that the Tories receive in donations through these secrecy vehicles.
Would Labour reverse this if in power? There’s little sign. Warm words about trust seem unlikely to be met with action.
Last month I attended a fringe event about ethics and integrity at the Labour conference in Liverpool. Neither of the two Labour representatives on the panel would commit to any substantive changes to tighten electoral laws or take dark money out of politics.
Already it’s clear that the next election is going to be the most expensive in British history. Labour’s private funding operation has massively ramped up. The Conservatives are taking in record sums, despite double-digit polling deficits.
The legislation introduced this week means that parties can spend approximately a third more money during the next general election.
“We probably shouldn’t be surprised that this government is increasing the amount of money they can bring in anonymously,” Labour MP Clive Lewis told me.
“This is a government that has been far too cosy with, and facilitated a lot of the issues we have with dark money in politics. Why? Because it’s benefited them.”
All this additional money will be spent in a political system with no checks and balances. This should worry everyone who cares about democracy.