Andy Burnham urged to keep promise to campaigner over donations cap

Andy Burnham has been urged by a campaigner to honour his promise to introduce a cap on donations to political parties.

Yesterday evening, the Guardian reported that Burnham has U-turned on his promise to cap political donations at £500,000.

According to government sources, Burnham has decided not to back amendments to the elections bill that would cap donations. The bill will return to Parliament next week. 

In May, Burnham told WakeUpGB campaigner Shaun Bowler that he agreed there should be a cap on political donations.

He voiced support for a cap “to guard against the perception of any one party being duly influenced or swayed by one person or organisation”.

The updated register of MPs’ financial interests, which was published last week, showed that Burnham accepted more than £325,000 in donations in the three months before he became an MP again.

The Guardian has reported that trade unions have influenced Burnham’s decision not to back a cap. Unions reportedly said that amendments to the bill, which will return to Parliament next week, could undermine their ability to donate to the party.

However, Paul Holden, the investigative journalist who wrote a book about undeclared funding received by Labour Together, said: “This is being briefed as if it’s unions opposing donations caps and that’s why Burnham has caved on his promises to cap political donations at £500k. 

“But we’ve literally JUST SEEN Burnham’s donations disclosures, which are not even mentioned in this article.

“They show Burnham getting a pittance from unions but substantial donations from Gary Lubner (£25k) and Lord Sainsbury (over £160k) to support his Labour leadership bid. Lubner and Sainsbury were two of the biggest previous funders of Labour Together and the Starmer projects, who both personally made donations in the millions to Labour Together and/or the Labour Party. 

“Burnham made his promise to cap donations at £500k to an activist in May this year. And then in June and July he gets bankrolled by the types of mega-donors who would be impacted by a donations cap, limiting their ability to influence politics. Then he drops the proposals that would impact on his personal donors. Deeply disappointing and really hard not to join these dots.”

Bowler said: “If his government now refuses to back a donations cap, then he has broken the promise he made to me – and to voters.

“I wanted to believe that someone was finally going to take on the culture that has left so many people feeling that their voices don’t matter and that wealthy people can buy influence over our government.”

Reacting to Burnham’s reported U-turn, former Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, wrote on X: “Unbelievably disappointing u-turn from the PM – where is the serious culture change at Westminster we were promised?  Our democracy should not be for sale.”

Journalist George Monbiot wrote on Bluesky: “So the ultra-rich will continue to own our politics, and our country. Disappointing to say the least.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward