Donations to Political Parties

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[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.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Forsyth of Drumlean)]

I think we have concluded the Private Notice Question.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, in 2011 the Committee on Standards in Public Life recommended that the amount that any organisation, individual or institution can give in political donations should be limited. It is now 15 years later. A few years ago, the noble Earl, Lord Howe, said from the Front Bench that, hypothetically, he agreed that there should be some kind of limit on the percentage of funding that one party should be able to get from one individual donor. Will the Government act after all this time?