Elections: Political Party Spending

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that all political parties must be engaged in any consultation. The idea is to produce a draft strategy based on the reports that have been produced so far and then have an extensive consultation on that. I will reply to the noble Lord in writing if that is different.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, I have to take the Question on money flowing into British politics further. In the Russia report, we had some information on Russian money flowing primarily into the Conservative Party and associated organisations. We now have American money from extremely reactionary groups within the United States—not the American state—flowing into a range of third-party campaigns and potentially through unincorporated associations to political parties. What are the Government going to do to monitor that and make it transparent to regulators?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Lord that this is a very important area. There are strict rules relating to unincorporated associations and the political contributions they make, including transparency requirements when making significant political donations. Currently, donations from unincorporated associations make up some 4.6% of the value of all reported permissible donations, but there is a risk there and it is very important that we take it seriously. As already stated, our department is developing policy proposals to meet manifesto commitments. As part of this, we are exploring recommendations from key stakeholders, including many that were made relating to unincorporated associations.