General Elections: Party-political Spending Debate
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Lord Sikka
Main Page: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Sikka's debates with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities
General Elections: Party-political Spending
Lord Sikka Excerpts(5 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, all political parties should seek to abide by the rules and, if they have not, they should definitely return the money that they owe.
Lord Sikka (Lab)
My Lords, general election spending is funded by big corporations and the rich. They do not actually donate money; they invest—they expect a return. In the interests of transparency, would the Minister consider introducing a law to require political parties to state what returns they have promised and to whom?
Baroness Penn (Con)
I completely reject the premise of the noble Lord’s question. We have transparency in our system so that people can see who donates to political parties. The alternative to donations to political parties is government funding of political parties and campaigning. That is not something that we on these Benches wish to see.