This article originally appeared in The Observer.
By: Olly Buston, Director at Clean Up Westminster.
The government is right to tighten the rules on overseas political donations (“Crypto billionaires face 12-month block on political donations over £100,000”). But if wealthy donors can simply wait a year or acquire a UK address before giving millions to political parties, the public will rightly question whether the reforms go far enough.
The bigger issue is not where a donor lives, but whether any individual should be able to make multimillion-pound donations at all. Polling consistently shows that the public are concerned that the wealthy can buy influence, regardless of whether that wealth comes from Bangkok or Basingstoke.
On 14 July, MPs have the opportunity to close that loophole by backing Stella Creasy’s amendment to the representation of the people bill to introduce a £100,000 annual cap on political donations. It is a good starting point that will help to end the VIP culture in Westminster. MPs who don’t back this amendment are basically saying politics should remain for sale to the highest bidder.