Political Donations: Cap

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Thursday 5th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord makes an interesting point; however, it is not for me, as a Minister, to consider, but for other parties. This is a decision for political parties on how they operate.

[Lord Beamish (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that a key point in a democracy is that donations and the sources of them are transparent? Therefore, I urge him to look at unincorporated associations and change the rules. This has been used by the Conservative Party on an industrial scale to make it very difficult to know where large sums of public money affecting our elections are coming from.

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very interesting point. I reassure him that we are going to look at the whole issue of electoral reform, and we will bring legislation forward. There is nothing timetabled in this Session, but it is difficult to specify a particular date. We will take away the issues my noble friend raises and consider them when we bring legislation forward, looking at not just political donations but wider electoral reform.