Donations to Political Parties

Lord Sikka Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

It would be a very strange Bill that came before this House without any amendments, in my experience. However, we have endeavoured to structure the Bill to deal with many of the issues around donations that have been raised over the past couple of years. I hope that, when it is debated here, Members will take the opportunity to see just how extensive this legislation is and how far it goes. If further issues are thrown up by the Rycroft review, we will endeavour to make sure that they are incorporated as quickly as possible.

[Lord Sikka (Lab)]

My Lords, the term political donations is misleading. This is really about political corruption. The donors are buying power and influence, subverting public choices, getting government contracts, et cetera. Simply capping it does not end political corruption. The only way forward is to criminalise the receipt and payment of political donations, because no ordinary person can play this game.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I have said to my noble friend before that I do not always share his conspiracy-theory approach to life. However, the new legislation will introduce “know your donor” schemes, where recipients of donations over £11,180 will be required to consider the risk of those donations being from illegitimate sources, to prevent the risk of foreign interference. There are serious penalties where those laws are not followed.