A rude awakening on donations
The world’s richest man is threatening to donate £79million to Reform UK.
There is no limit on political donations in our country. If someone wants to buy into UK politics in a big way, there’s nothing to stop them.
Despite not being a UK citizen, it seems likely that Elon Musk could give the money legally through one of his UK companies. It would be the biggest ever political donation in the UK - nearly ten times more than the previous highest.
It shows how wide open our politics is to big money.
Both the Conservative and Labour parties know this - there’s been a cosy consensus between them on avoiding introducing donation limits in the UK.
How did they react to the news of Musk’s potential donation? :
Within hours the Guardian reported that Ministers were considering introducing a £100,000 donation limit.
Conservative co-Chairman Dominic Johnson told Tory activists on a video call seen by Sky News that a donation from the world’s richest man to Reform would amount to “basically buying one of the political parties here.”
Talk about a rude awakening for both of them!
For the record, both the Conservatives and Labour have received tens of millions in big money donations over many years. Our research shows that more than 80% of fundraising income for the Conservatives and Labour came from donors giving more than £100,000. The biggest ever UK political donation of £8million went to the Liberal Democrats in 2019.
The Conservatives and Labour have resisted all previous attempts to get big money out of our politics. Perhaps now things might change?
Politics and politicians are supposed to put the voters’ interests first, but with so much money sloshing around in our politics, is that really happening?
Two years ago, we polled voters on a range of democratic issues. One question we asked was, who has the most influence over the government’s public policy decisions?
More than FOUR times as many people felt that party donors had the most influence compared to ordinary voters.
It’s no surprise that trust has sunk so low in our politics.
So will the threat of a Musk donation actually spark anyone into action?
The Labour Party manifesto promised to 'protect democracy by strengthening the rules around donations to political parties.'
It’s on them to deliver on this manifesto pledge and soon.
Unlock Democracy believes that we need to get big money out of our politics. We’ve been campaigning for donation limits for years, along with many other much needed reforms.
We are proposing a donation limit of £5,000 per year - that’s the number we’ve reached after years of research and consultation.
A £5,000 limit would kick big money out of politics overnight. Parties would be forced to raise money from a much wider number of people, rather than just a handful of mega-donors.
Our politics already has a big enough problem with money - you only need to look at the party donors sitting in the House of Lords to realise that.
A Musk donation on this scale would take things to a whole new level. Even if this donation doesn’t materialise, sooner or later we’ll likely see a different billionaire doing the same kind of thing. This whole episode shows that, with no donation limits, our politics and political parties are potentially for sale to the highest bidder.
That’s what’s happened in the USA, where Musk donated over $200million to the Trump campaign and has been rewarded with a government job.
That isn’t where we want the UK to go.
The Government, ideally with the support of opposition parties, must now act and close off this threat. And while they’re at it, they need to tackle other ways dark money can seep into our politics too.
Failure to do so leaves our democracy dangerously exposed.