Political donations rules ‘need strengthening’ says head of Electoral Commission
The rules around donations to political parties need strengthening to “protect the electoral system from foreign interference”, the head of the elections watchdog has said.
Vijay Rangarajan, chief executive of the Electoral Commission, told The Guardian that it is “crucial” that people have “trust in the financing” of the political system.
It comes amid reports that X owner Elon Musk has been preparing to make a large donation to Reform UK.
Interview
In an interview with the newspaper, Mr Rangarajan said: “It’s crucial that UK voters have trust in the financing of our political system, so they need to see how parties and campaigners are financed and how they spend that money at elections.”
He added: “We recommend three key changes: limit company donations to the money that they have made in the UK; legally require parties to conduct know-your-donor checks on donations to assess and manage their risks; and ensure those who donate to unincorporated associations are permissible donors.”
Rules
According to UK election rules, parties can accept donations from a number of sources including individuals on the UK electoral register or a UK-registered company.
Earlier this week, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage suggested talks were underway with Elon Musk about a potential donation to the party, saying that the two had discussed money and there will be “ongoing negotiations”.
“Historic” meeting
Mr Farage described his hour-long meeting with Mr Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Monday as “great” and “historic”, saying he and party treasurer Nick Candy had “learned a great deal about the Trump ground game”.
“We only have one more chance left to save the West and we can do great things together,” he said.
Writing in The Telegraph after the meeting, Mr Farage said Mr Musk described Labour and the Conservatives as “the uniparty” and “left us in no doubt that he is right behind us”.
“Inevitably, following such intense media speculation, the issue of money was discussed, and there will be ongoing negotiations on that score,” the Reform UK leader added.
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The realm of Science Fiction is full of Musk types…
……..so too the corridors of power. Musk may be upping the ante but every suit, pair of specs, and those famous holidays and other goodies received by the fabled Fatso inform us that maybe all donations should be capped, or even canned completely. After all if parties had to rely on a small, very small funding base they would be less prone to bouts of extravagant fibbing and general bullsh*tt*ng campaigns.
Deep in the heart of Clogau Mountain (others are available) a group of legendary heroes sit and plan for a new Aleppo…
The opening scene for Ryan’s new movie…
Trouble with your argument is, SpaceX, Tesla, and Starnet are science fact.
Bought by musk. Not invented. Serious concerns over health and safety, one tesla model listed as the most deadly on US roads and cyber truck is a joke, starlink looking like it is a major polluter of the upper atmosphere with no mitigations in place and now US military and Gov departments raising national security concerns over musks drug use and involvement with putin. But donny has a habit of overriding security national issues and stopping people looking at them.
Not anyone you want in to take advice off or give information to it seems.
We are witnessing a massive lurch towards an even more intense and dominant plutocracy. We have to fight back.
How ironic. We have man-baby Elon Musk thinking of funding Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party to the tune of £100 million, the very same party whose former co-chair of Leave and once Reform UK leader Richard Tice who was outraged when billionaire George Soros donated £400k to a pro-EU organisation “Best for Britain” leading up to the Brexit vote in 2016 stating, and I quote: “He (Soros) should not interfere in British politics, this is a foreign billionaire who is trying to destabilise and overthrow one of the greatest democratic democracies and governments in the world just to suit his… Read more »
And he told a US president to stop interfering. Called Obama a “loathsome individual” then praises trump with all his convictions and admissions on abuse and now welcome’s interference from that abuser.
funny how nige is against foreign interference until it benefits him and he may get money from an African immigrant. Musk must now fall into the dangerous category on any government watch list given his recent actions and interaction. Not only do we need protections from the likes of trump and musk funnelling money via a loop hole and making policy, we need the law that Dominic Grieve recommended, we will now have an elected MP going behind the back of the elected British government. Perhaps now would be a time to announce a full inquiry into interference in the… Read more »
It’ll be interesting to see how many supporters of the far-right Reform UK who attacked Vaughan Gething’s donation from a constituent will be as forthcoming in their outrage regarding a donation to Farage from a foreign government employed national.
The real foreign interference. The man who thinks he is a king, with his many worshippers. Rules need to take the big money out of politics and allow ethics back in. Musk is a huge danger to life, including g his own as he takes drugs to knock people out as anti depressants.
If Musk gets away with funding Reform with millions we are on a very rocky road to fascism and scapegoating immigrants for everything the Tories failed to tackle in 15 years.
we’re already there.