Political party finance

Book excerpt: The Committee on Standards in Public Life spent a year looking at party political finance. The majority report believes that the only safe way to remove big money from party funding is to put a cap on donations from all sources, individuals and organisations, of £10,000 in any one year. Trade union affiliation fees could be regarded as a collection of individual donations providing the members individually opt-in to the fee. The cap would have a significant impact on the income of the major parties, and would inevitably require a compensating increase in support for parties from public funds. The public funding should depend on the number of votes secured in the previous election, at the rate of £3.00 a vote in Westminster elections and £1.50 a vote in devolved and European elections. This proposal would result in an annual support amount of some £23 million, equivalent to about 50p per elector per year. Income tax relief, similar to Gift Aid, should be available on donations of up to £1000 and on membership fees to political parties. Another main recommendation, among the 24 in the report, is that the existing limits on campaign spending in the period before an election should be cut by the order of 15 per cent. The proposals will create challenges for the Electoral Commission, and the Committee suggests the recommendations are implemented in time for the start of the next Parliament in 2015. Two members representing political parties dissented from some of the recommendations.