Electoral Resilience

Steve Reed Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Steve Reed)]

His Majesty’s Government are today announcing an independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics. The review will be led by former permanent secretary Philip Rycroft, and will report both to me as Secretary of State responsible for the administration of elections, and to the Minister of State for Security as the Chair of the Defending Democracy Taskforce. It will be concluded by the end of March 2026.

The review follows the sentencing of Nathan Gill at the Old Bailey on 21 November 2025 under the Bribery Act. This case has revealed the threat our democracy faces today, and has caused deep concern across Parliament.

Mr Gill’s sentence is the longest handed down to a politician in a case like this in our nation’s recent history. At the time his offences were committed, Mr Gill sat as a Member of the European Parliament, and he went on to become a senior leader of a UK party. We should be clear about what his crimes were: An elected politician took bribes to parrot the lines of a hostile state responsible for the death of Dawn Sturgess—a British citizen on British soil. He took the side of those responsible for invading a sovereign European state, and he was prosecuted while Putin’s military targeted the civilian men, women and children of Ukraine. While the work of the police and Crown Prosecution Service in successfully prosecuting this case must be commended, it is right that we now take a step back to look at how we can protect our democracy against such appalling crimes.

The purpose of the review, which is independent of Government and of any political party, is to provide an in-depth assessment of current financial rules and safeguards, and offer recommendations. The detailed terms of reference will be deposited in the House of Commons Library.

The findings of the independent review will build on the Government’s elections strategy and counter political interference and espionage action plan, and inform the elections and democracy Bill that we have pledged to bring forward.

Our strategy for modern and secure elections, published earlier this year, will close loopholes that should have been closed long before we entered office. However, in the time since that strategy was published, events have shown that we need to consider whether our firewall is enough. The independent review will look at this, focusing in particular on the effectiveness of our broader political finance law, on current checks and balances within political regulation for identifying and mitigating foreign interference, and on the rules governing the constitution and regulation of parties, and the Electoral Commission’s enforcement power.

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