17th July 2025

Rushanara Ali MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Dear Rushanara Ali MP,

We welcome the promising reforms you set out in the Government’s elections strategy today.

The commitments to automate voter registration, lower the voting age to 16, and tackle dodgy donations will all help strengthen our democracy.

We’re particularly pleased to see recognition of the millions of people who are missing from our electoral register.  We hope the government will deliver an automated system that ensures EVERY eligible voter is signed up to vote BEFORE the next General Election.

These changes and some of the other changes will help restore the integrity of elections, and boost trust in our democracy.

We would like to highlight some key areas where we think the strategy could be improved before it becomes a bill. We would like to work with you to make it stronger.

The government must restore the independence of the Electoral Commission. 

Labour Shadow Ministers rightfully opposed the decision to strip the Electoral Commission of its independence under the Conservatives. 

We are concerned there’s no plan to set a cap on political donations. This leaves our elections open to a small number of wealthy donors to have huge influence, undermining the public's trust in our politics.

We are also concerned about the lack of new action to tackle growing disinformation and misinformation in our politics. Most of our election laws were written before the age of the internet and social media. We need to bring them fully up to date.

And finally the statement fails to address the elephant in the room - our First Past the Post electoral system doesn’t work for the multi-party politics we have today.

We’d welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how the Elections Bill can go further.

Yours sincerely,

Tom Brake - Director of Unlock Democracy