Donations to Political Parties

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have, if any, to tighten the rules regarding donations to political parties.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, foreign interference is a threat to our democracy. That is why we are currently legislating to tighten the rules on who can make political donations and strengthening checks on and the transparency of those donations. We are also acting on the recommendations of Philip Rycroft’s independent review into foreign financial interference. We are capping donations from overseas electors and bringing forward a moratorium on crypto asset donations. We will issue a full response to the Rycroft report in due course.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend the Minister for that really helpful Answer. I agree with everything that she has said. However, will she now consider tightening the rules on the expenditure of Short money which is allocated specifically to opposition parties at Westminster? If there is any misspending of that money, who is responsible for dealing with it? Is it the Public Accounts Committee or the Government? Does she agree with me that whoever it is should be dealing with it as a matter of urgency?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

It is important that any money spent from the public purse is spent in a way that commands the confidence of the public. It is critical that processes are in place to monitor that spending and to make sure that it is used for the purposes it is there for. It is critical that it is properly and legally audited, so that we can all be assured of that. One of the big problems we have in the political world is an undermining of confidence in the political system. That is not helped when people do not have confidence in the financial systems that surround it. Those things are really important, and we continue to keep them under review.