General Election 2024: Big money and data on steroids

Did anyone think that the problem in UK politics and elections was that there wasn’t enough money sloshing around? 

Clearly someone did, because the Government has raised the spending cap for political parties from £19 million to £35 million at the next election.

At the same time, they’ve increased the amounts donors can give without being made public. Government changes to election laws also mean that many more UK citizens living abroad will also be allowed to donate to political parties. 

Now it’s also been announced that political parties might be exempted from parts of UK data protection laws that stop unrestricted use of personal data in elections. 
The Financial Times recently reported that ‘The government is paving the way for UK political parties to “bombard” voters with unsolicited calls, texts and emails ahead of the next general election through changes to data protection laws.’

When you join all these dots together you see we are heading for a General Election with spending limits nearly doubled, more anonymous and overseas donations and political parties free to ignore privacy laws. 

These aren’t the changes that most people want to see. 

The very real problems in our political system are well documented and lengthy. They include things like disinformation, foreign interference, voter disengagement, dodgy donations, millions of citizens who are not registered to vote, misuse of social media, outdated election laws and more.

All these have been highlighted by campaign groups like Unlock Democracy. They’ve also been highlighted by groups such as the Law Commission, the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Electoral Commission. 

The biggest change that the Government has made to election laws in the last 4 years is to introduce a restrictive photo Voter ID scheme designed to fix an almost non-existent problem (2 proven cases of ID fraud in 2019). We now know that tens of thousands of eligible citizens will lose their vote because of it. 

All of this leaves us in a dangerous situation as we head into election year.

Instead of having rules and laws that protect free and fair elections in the UK, we have gaping holes that can be exploited. 

Existing rules that used to restrict party spending, overseas donors and use of personal data are set to be binned. 

The new spending limits favour the bigger parties, no one questions that. No party has ever spent more than £19 million on an election and only the Conservative Party has come close (in 2019). In 2024, parties will be allowed to spend up to £35 million! 

Where will the extra money come from? Inevitably it will be big donors that step up, increasing their influence over our politics.

An Unlock Democracy poll in late 2021 found that 1 in 4 voters thought that donors to political parties had the most influence over public policy decisions made by the Government. Barely 1 in 20 thought ordinary voters did.

That’s only going to get worse with these changes.

So how can we fix all this? 

The solutions are not difficult - there are many comprehensive policy solutions ready and waiting to be implemented on issues from getting big money out of politics through to bringing election laws into the 21st century.
What’s lacking is the political will. 

Unlock Democracy and our many coalition partners are going to spend every week up until the next election and beyond challenging political parties on this.

It’s not enough to say or accept that the system isn’t working or is broken as both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer said at different points in 2023. Someone has to deliver.

Reforms to our political system need to be made with the public, not individual political parties being the beneficiaries. 

Decisions about the rules around elections should be made by independent bodies, not the government of the day.

We need urgent, comprehensive and lasting reform to fix the problems in our political system - this is not the time to mess around the edges of the issue.

That’s what the public wants and deserves. That’s what Unlock Democracy will be campaigning for in 2024 and beyond.