'A badly missed opportunity'
MPs have voted down attempts to prevent foreign influence in UK elections yesterday, in a move which has drawn strong criticism from political transparency campaigners.
The House of Commons yesterday voted against tightening the rules on foreign interference in elections after the government whipped its MPs to oppose an amendment to the National Security Bill proposed by the House of Lords.
253 MPs voted to oppose the amendment, all of whom were either Tories or independent MPs who were elected as Tories. 134 MPs backed the Lords’ proposals – with Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens all voting in support. Just one Tory – Julian Lewis – voted to tighten foreign interference in elections.
The defeated amendment would have placed new duties on political parties to publish a policy statement on identifying donations from foreign powers alongside an annual statement on how they are managing the risks relating to foreign donations.
Critics of the current legislative framework say that existing regulations on donations have significant loopholes which allow individuals linked to foreign states to funnel cash to UK political parties.
openDemocracy reports that the security minister Tom Tugendhat ignored a request by the Electoral Commission – the UK’s election watchdog – to close these loopholes. The watchdog’s chair John Pullinger wrote to the government to say: “Although parties and campaigners are already required to check that a donation is from a permissible source […] we have recommended that they should be required to take additional steps to ensure they know where the money has come from.”
Responding to the vote in the House of Commons, Dr Susan Hawley, Executive Director of Spotlight on Corruption, said: “The government’s strong words on tackling foreign influence and defending UK democracy ring very hollow today. This is a badly missed opportunity by the government to protect the next election from malign influences and make sure that political parties play their role in protecting the UK political system from dirty money.”
The Conservative Party has been heavily criticised for donations it has received from individuals linked to Russia. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the Tories received over £240,000 from donors linked to Russia since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Following the votes in the Commons, the bill will return to the Lords, where peers will decide whether to attempt to amend the legislation again.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Diliff – Creative Commons
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