Political Party Finance and the Electoral Commission

Lord Kerr of Kinlochard Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kerr of Kinlochard (CB)]

The noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, introduced the debate with his usual courtesy and wisdom, but he reminded us that, as a highlander, for all the courtesy, he carries a claymore. I cannot follow him in that—I am a boring lowlander.

I want to support the plea from the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, for urgency with the Representation of the People Bill. It is worrying that it has been three months since the Rycroft report came out. I thought Rycroft was quite right when he presented it saying that he did not want to press a panic button, but he did want to ring an alarm bell. I think that it is alarming.

The particular angle I want to explore, one that has not been touched on so far in this debate, is hostile state actors using agents of opportunity, gullible, greedy or malevolent, in this country. We need to look closely at the financial links that have been well documented between RN in France and Moscow and the links that are well documented between the AfD in Germany and Moscow—the Fidesz link with Budapest is of course notorious. There were reports of close involvement, interference, by Russia in the Romanian and Moldova elections. I cannot stand that up, but the reporting seemed convincing.

Last weekend, I heard a senior Ukrainian say that with the war going rather better, even though the Americans have reduced their support, the worst thing for Ukraine, the thing it feared most now, was an election going wrong in a major European state. I think he was talking about France, but he might have been talking about Italy or Germany, or he could have been talking about us. What will happen if the Russians reach the same analysis, if they believe that undermining our trust in our democracy will assist in getting a party in power in a western European capital that is less willing to support Ukraine? You do not need a crystal ball; they have done it before and they know how to do it.

The Representation of the People Bill has been sitting in the Commons, and we do not know when Report will be. I think that the message we should send, the message from the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, is that we want to see it soon and to see it amended and strengthened along the lines that Rycroft recommended.

We need to increase rather sharply the penalties for political parties which are found not to have checked their donors adequately, if parties do not know their donors, or if a state actor turns out to have been behind a donation by an individual, association or company. We should nudge the parties in the right direction by increasing the risks they run if they do not do so by giving the Electoral Commission stronger investigatory powers, such as the power to require information from other government agencies, as the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, recommended, and the deterrent of much higher penalties.

I do not share the concern of the noble Lord, Lord Frost, about the leadership of the Electoral Commission. The current leader of the Electoral Commission and the noble Lord occupied the same desk in the Foreign Office and they were both extremely effective. I hope that the Government are using the delay in the Bill to strengthen it and that, toughened up, it will reach us before the leaves are off the trees. Rycroft was right to sound the alarm.