Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2026 to Question 184 on Countering Foreign Financial Influence and Interference in UK politics independent review, for what reason political parties were not consulted before the two recommendations were accepted; and whether political parties have been consulted since the review was published.

It is, and always will be, an absolute priority to protect our democratic and electoral processes, including malign information operations and covert political funding.

The Government’s decision to immediately accept two of the recommendations via amendments to the Representation of the People Bill: (1) an annual £100,000 cap on total political donations and regulated transactions made by each overseas elector; and (2) a moratorium on political donations made using crypto assets, of any amount, was made to strengthen protections against foreign financial interference in UK democracy and to maintain confidence in the transparency and integrity of political donations. We acted quickly to bring forward the provisions, to avoid a window of opportunity opening that would enable evasion by malign and hostile actors.

The Government is committed to responding formally and in full to the Rycroft Review in advance of the Commons report stage of the Representation of the People Bill. As part of this, the Government will continue to engage across the sector, including with political parties. We have had an initial discussion with representatives on the Electoral Commission’s Parliamentary Parties Panel and look forward to a further discussion in the near future.