Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics

Bobby Dean Excerpts

Wednesday 25th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

I thank my hon. Friend for that important question. Many people who care deeply about democracy have raised similar concerns. The review makes proposals on deepfakes and transparency about the origins of any content that appears online, which is needed. We will provide a detailed response to the recommendations, at which point she and other Members will have the opportunity to scrutinise and debate and scrutiny them as we work through the legislation.

[Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and the action he is taking on cryptocurrency, but can I urge him to go further on corporate donations? A report this week by CenTax revealed that as many as one in four donations from corporate entities are essentially opaque. It put this down to the reliance on persons with significant control rules, and it made a series of recommendations. Will he commit to looking at the recommendations in that report and ensuring that we tighten up the system so that people cannot simply circumvent the rules by donating via British companies?

[Steve Reed]

The Bill and the Rycroft review already propose actions on that. I recognise the concerns. We need to act on shell companies, for instance, which can be used to funnel in dark money. We have no idea where that is coming from. There are legitimate concerns that the money could be coming from hostile states seeking to weaken and undermine our country by undermining our democracy. We will not tolerate that.