UK Elections: 5 major parties accepted illegal foreign donations, claims report

Ahead of the UK general elections, five of the six British political parties accepted illegal foreign donations, according to a media investigation.

As per the British law, only those on the United Kingdom’s electoral roll can make donations. The lower limit of a donation is £500. The law says that parties must return the impermissible donations within 30 days and must report any failure to do so to the Electoral Commission. These rules are intended to check undue influence of foreigners in British politics.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) has reported that five of the six major British parties accepted donations that violated these provisions. These parties are Conservative Party, Reform UK, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, and Scottish National Party (SNP). These parties failed either to prevent these donations or spot them as required and return.

The report said that only the Labour Party spotted the illegal nature of the donation and blocked it as is required by the law.

The UK elections are scheduled for July 4. All polls so far have predicted that the Labour will win comfortably and bring the Conservatives’ 14-year rule to an end.

How British parties failed to check foreign donations

The TBIJ said that it asked an overseas resident, who is neither a British resident nor on the electoral roll, to make a series of payments to six major parties. These payments were each less than £500 but were more than £500 when added up.

The payments were made from a foreign bank card via the websites of these parties, according to the report.

The donations were illegal as they were under £500, which is the minimum acceptable value, and were made by someone not on the British electoral role.

The report said that all parties, except for the Labour, failed to prevent or return these donations.

The British Electoral Commission has specifically directed the parties to stay alert to multiple small payments that together cross the threshold of £500 — the strategy employed by the TBIJ in its investigation. The commission has said that parties should ensure their records are maintained such that they can “ascertain if multiple donations have come from the same source”.

‘Self-policing of political donations has never worked’

Responding to the findings of the TBIJ investigation, election law expert Gavin Millar said the law allows for self-policing of donations by political parties and such a system has never worked.

“The system of self-policing these donations has never really worked. You are leaving it to the beneficiary to check,” said Millar to TBJIJ.

Millar said that the party not looking out for such a “scam” or not reporting is going against the spirit of the law is risking to be in violation of the law itself or being party of the donor’s offence. He added that a system that allowed such donations was “absurd”.

“They can turn a blind eye or say [it is] not our job to do it, but this just goes to [show] how absurd it is to have the beneficiaries of the money policing the system,” said Millar.