Starmer vows to strengthen donation rules after Musk floats bankrolling Reform UK
Downing Street has vowed to protect democracy from threats of foreign interference amid reports that Elon Musk has been preparing to make a large donation to Reform UK.
It comes as party leader Nigel Farage suggested talks were underway with Musk about a potential donation to the party.
Farage, the MP for Clacton, described his hour-long meeting with Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort as “great” and “historic.”
Now, Downing Street said work has started on tightening the rules on foreign nationals getting involved in British politics.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “You have got the legislative priorities for the parliamentary set out in the King’s Speech. The commitment remains as it the manifesto to protect democracy from threats to foreign interference by strengthening the rules around donations to political parties.”
When asked if Starmer is looking at limiting donations in the way set out by the Electoral Commission chief, a spokesperson said: “The work as set out in the manifesto will take evidence from a number of stakeholders such as the Electoral Commission.
“The Electoral Commission has said voters should have confidence in the integrity of elections part of that is around strengthening the rules on donations and is why the Government has committed to that in the manifesto.”
Asked if only money made in the UK should be used to fund politics here, a spokesman said: “I am not going to get ahead of further reforms in this space. That work is ongoing…. that work began on day one of coming into Government in line with the entire manifesto.”
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It comes after Labour MP Eltham and Chislehurst Clive Efford told the Commons ministers need to make it clear that “our politics is not up for sale” as he called for a debate on the topic of donations. He said: “I wonder what it means when a party talks about sovereignty and is then willing to sell itself entirely to a foreign owner.
“And when it uses slogans like ‘take back control’, now we’ve had the controversy of the Conservative Party who are fond of taking a few bob from Putin’s oligarchs, we’ve seen the recent scandals around Chinese trying to influence politics in this country, so I think we need to make sure that as this Government, that we are saying ‘our politics is not up for sale’, and I think we should have a debate on that.”
Commons leader Lucy Powell said: “Well I think he makes some extremely valid points around our democracy and our sovereignty in this country.”
She added: “(He) will be aware that foreign donations are not permitted into our electoral system, and that is absolutely right as it should be. Our democracy does face daily threats from rogue state actors and others trying to disrupt our democracy and to spread misinformation and disinformation, and these are issues that we should be very alive to.”
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.
Chief executive of the Electoral Commission Vijay Rangarajan told The Guardian that it is “crucial” that people have “trust in the financing” of the political system.
He 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.
“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.”