Our letter to the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government: Strengthen political finance rules in the forthcoming Elections Bill

26 Sept

26th September 2025

Rt Hon. Steve Reed OBE MP
Secretary of State for Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government

Samantha Dixon MBE MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Building Safety, Fire, and Democracy)

Dear Steve and Samantha,

RE: Strengthening political finance rules in the forthcoming Elections Bill

We write to you as a group of civil society organisations and independent think tanks working on issues of electoral integrity and anti-corruption in UK politics – particularly on areas around political finance and the Electoral Commission. We would like to welcome you to your new roles.

We very much welcome that the Government has published a Strategy for Modern and Secure Elections, with a view to introducing an “Elections Bill” later this year. Successful and ambitious implementation of this strategy is key to delivering Labour Manifesto commitments about restoring trust in public service including “strengthening the rules around donations to political parties”.

The Strategy in our view is a positive first step towards closing various loopholes that undermine the integrity of the UK’s political finance regime, including some crucial reforms that we have called for over a number of years. We look forward to engaging with you on the details of these positive reforms in the coming months. However, we urge the government to be as ambitious as possible with these reforms to ensure that our elections are protected from foreign interference and the influence of mega-donations.

In particular, we urge you to:

Restore and bolster the independence of the Electoral Commission by removing the power for the government to set a Strategy and Policy Statement and include lay members on the Speaker’s Committee.
Introduce a cap on donations.
Lower spending limits and introduce reporting requirements for spending on political campaigning that apply annually rather than just during the regulated period.
Prohibit cryptocurrency donations to political parties and candidates that are not made through FCA-regulated payments processors, or prohibit them altogether.
Prohibit corporate donations where the beneficial owner/s of the company is/are not permissible donors.
Ensure that the Electoral Commission has the resources and the powers it needs to investigate donations from impermissible donors, obtain information from social media companies, regulate cryptocurrency donations, and work with a dedicated law enforcement unit on the most complex investigations.

We are keen to support you to deliver on this important agenda. Representatives of the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition and our member organisations would welcome a meeting to discuss these proposals in more detail and further engagement as this piece of legislation goes through Parliament.

Sincerely,