Party funding revisited

10.19.46am GMT Thu 14th Dec 2006

How should political parties be funded?

Sir Hayden Phillips draft report on party funding has suggested a cap on donations of £50,000. Which funnily enough is what I suggested as a maximum when I put up my poll a couple of weeks ago. You can still vote in my poll, it is on the main page and gives you various options - right now the top choice is "A mixture of individuals, companies and trade unions - with a cap on how much" though not by much.

The draft proposes a £50,000 cap for all individuals and organisations and looks like all Trade Union donations will have to be converted into individual donations. I suspect many ordinary Trade Union members will simply not give (as opposed to paying the current political levy).

Sir Hayden also recommends a ban on anonymous bodies donating to political parties. This of course would mean organisations like the Midlands Industrial Council would have been unable to make donations.

I would certainly be supportive of these proposal, but suspect they may well get changed before the final report.