Parties ‘still not declaring loans’
Political parties are still failing to declare all the loans and donations they receive from wealthy backers, the Electoral Commission has warned today.
Despite the concerns about party funding raised following the cash for peerages row, the watchdog says £310,000 worth of donations were reported late in the last quarter.
It also finds that all the main parties are still failing to be completely transparent about loans received – although Labour and the Conservatives have declared loans to their party headquarters, their local constituency associations have not.
“Full disclosure of both donations and loans is vital to address public concern about the transparency of political party funding,” said chief executive Peter Wardle.
New figures today show Labour has a total of £28.2 million in outstanding loans, £7.5 million of which are from banks and are due to be repaid by December this year.
The Tories have only made public the loans received in the past three months, not those that are outstanding from before then, and these come to a total of £2.8 million.
The Liberal Democrats have declared all current loans, worth £584,239, but other parties such as the Greens, Ukip and the BNP have failed to make any loans public.
From September 11th the Electoral Administration Act will come into force requiring full disclosure of all loans and donations but in the meantime, the Electoral Commission had asked parties to voluntarily disclose all their funding sources as an act of good faith.
But today Mr Wardle expressed his disappointment at the response to this request, which was made amid concerns that a few wealthy backers were exerting too much influence, and warned the main parties were “ill-prepared” to meet the new law.
“The fact that the main parties seem to be struggling with the level of disclosure we have called for on a voluntary basis suggests that they are ill-prepared to comply with the new laws that parliament has put in place,” he said.
“We will do all we can to ensure the parties understand the new requirements, but they need to take them seriously to restore public confidence.”
Today’s figures show the Conservatives received £5.9 million in donations in the three months to June, Labour received £3.4 million and the Lib Dems £780,000.
They also reveal details of £310,000 worth of donations reported late, the vast majority of which – £216,933 – were made to the Conservative party. Labour failed to report £9,500 worth of donations, and the Lib Dems failed to report £54,464.
The commission also reveals that some donations have still not been reported, and gives parties until September 30th to clean up their act. It adds that the late reporting of donations, under a five-year-old law, is “not acceptable”.
