General Elections: Party-political Spending

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Wednesday 29th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I believe that the rules regarding third-party campaigning organisations will also be uprated as part of this work.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, there are a number of proposals for limiting the size of donations. Have the Government taken any issue with that? I have looked at the reports on donations for the first six months of this year, and the three largest donations to the Conservative Party were two individual donations of £5 million and one of £2 million. One was from a British-Egyptian national who was a Minister in a previous Egyptian Government and whose interests appear to be based primarily in Dubai. Another was from someone listed with Companies House as an Indian national— I assume therefore resident in London—whose interests are primarily in Thailand and Indonesia. Is it not time that the Government became much stricter on the size as well as the origins of individual donations?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have no plans to limit the size of donations made. We have procedures in place to ensure that there is transparency over those donations and, as we are discussing today, spending limits for candidates and parties in elections. That is how we govern the use of money in our political system.