Trust in Britain's party funding system is at rock bottom. Yet ministers plan to reduce the Electoral Commission's independence.

More than 15,000 people have signed a petition opposing Tory plans to stymie the independent election watchdog’s powers and independence.

Last week, the government quietly released plans in the upcoming Elections Bill for the Electoral Commission to be stripped of the powers to initiate criminal prosecutions of election wrongdoing. That could include, for example, failing to reveal the identity of donors who pay for the refurbishment of your SW1 flat.  

The proposals announced so far also include a move to allow politicians – rather than the EC’s board – to set the priorities of the Electoral Commission.

The plans would increase the powers of the Speaker’s Committee, which now has a government majority for the first time ever.

The Electoral Commission released a statement on Thursday, expressing concerns that the changes could ‘fetter’ and ‘limit’ its work and independence.

But the story has been picked up in only a handful of newspaper stories.

Campaign group Open Britain has now launched a petition stating: “The Electoral Commission is the guardian of electoral integrity in the UK but Boris Johnson is planning to remove its power to prosecute corrupt politicians.

“If he succeeds, our elections regulator will no longer be able to hold to account those politicians found to have taken back-handers or lied to the public during election and referendum campaigns.

“This is the most outrageous attack on democracy since the lies told by the Vote Leave campaign in 2016.

“We cannot allow this Prime Minister, who was fired twice for lying, to neuter the body responsible for protecting us from politicians who lie.”

Democracy campaigners FairVote UK also hit out, branding the move a ‘power grab’ from ministers: “Make no mistake – this is authoritarianism in action. The Commission desperately needed reform even prior to this egregious political move – this decision sends us charging head first in the wrong direction.”

Instead, they argue the EC needs more power to punish transgressions and deter malevolent actors, and full independence from government to operate fairly and effectively.

“The Electoral Commission is at its core an independent watchdog, one that we depend on greatly to strengthen our electoral integrity and maintain the health of our democracy.

“This is an historic moment: infringing on the remit of critical democratic institutions is a major step towards full-blown authoritarianism,” the group said in a statement to supporters, adding: “This government can not continue to abuse trusted institutions for the personal benefit of its leaders.”

The alarm comes as new research from the Electoral Commission shows that public confidence in the running of elections is at its highest level since data collection began in 2012.

New findings, published today by the Electoral Commission, show that four out of five respondents are confident that elections in the UK are well run, up from 71% last year. Satisfaction with the process of voting (86%) and registering to vote (86%) were also at record highs.

Yet positive perceptions about the transparency of spending and funding of political parties and campaigners have been in decline. Only 14% of respondents say they believe political finance is transparent, down from 37% in 2011. 

Challenged this afternoon on the changes, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister told journalists: “Clearly it’s a good thing that the country has faith in our electoral process. The Electoral Commission has vital role to play in upholding free and fair elections – that’s why it’s important that the commission should be fully accountable to parliament for how it fulfils this role.”

But opposition parties are concerned that the plans form part of a wider effort to stifle democracy – including the policing bill, mandatory voter ID, and changing the voting system for mayoral/PCC elections in England.

The Liberal Democrats are also calling on the Government to remove a key plank of its Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, as a new report from Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights says it “would increase those restrictions on non-violent protest in a way that we believe is inconsistent with our rights”.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: “Priti Patel’s protest crackdown law is dangerous and draconian. The right to peaceful assembly and protest is a fundamental human right, and has always been a crucial part of our democratic society.

“As the Joint Committee on Human Rights makes clear, these new laws would undermine that right. They are part of the Conservative Government’s anti-democratic attempts to silence any opposition to its policies, and the Liberal Democrats will fiercely resist them.”

A Savanta ComRes poll for Left Foot Forward last week found that nearly half of voters believe the prime minister should be investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards over the secretive funding for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat. Only a third disagreed.

The petition against the changes to our election watchdog is here.

Josiah Mortimer is co-editor of Left Foot Forward. He also works with the Electoral Reform Society, which campaigns for political reform, and he has written on this issue previously.

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