In a report published by Transparency International UK earlier this year, respondents were asked to rank several scenarios as a possible example of corruption. 86% of respondents thought that ‘a seat in the House of Lords for a businessman who has made large donations to a political party’ was potentially corrupt, the highest score for any of the scenarios.

Sir Christopher Kelly’s report on Political Party Finance launched today, which recommends that all political party donations should be capped at £10,000, echoes what we have been urging for several years. The system is highly vulnerable to corruption – this is why UK politics has suffered periodic scandals, such as the ‘cash for peerage’ controversy in 2006.

Although the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000, the Electoral Administration Act 2006 and the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 have lead to greater transparency in political party funding, the UK is one of the few industrial democracies that does not have a ceiling on donations to political parties. The so-called ‘arms-race’ approach to election spending, combined with decreasing party and trade union membership, puts financial pressure on politicians and parties. A high dependence on very large individual donations has resulted, increasing the risk of corruption and exacerbating public unease about donors’ influence over politicians.

The full version of this article can be found on politics.co.uk