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A prominent Labour donor has backed a report advocating a ban on private funding for UK political parties.
Environmental tycoon Dale Vince said British democracy is “increasingly up for sale to the highest bidder” and must be made “squeaky clean”.
Mr Vince supported calls by the Autonomy Institute to replace current party finances with state funding.
The organisation estimates the shift would cost about £50 million annually, funded by reallocating money designated for the royal family.
Mr Vince said: “Ridiculous sums of money don’t level the playing field, they distort it.
“British democracy is increasingly up for sale to the highest bidder, and nowhere is that clearer than with Reform UK: a party with no track record and precious few real policies, being bankrolled to a level of prominence a handful of super-rich donors have simply bought for them.
“As a donor myself, I’ve been calling for a ban on all political donations for some time.
“For £50 million a year, less than the cost of a packet of crisps per person, we could make our politics squeaky clean and genuinely representative. The end goal has to be a fully publicly funded system.”
Mr Vince has donated several million pounds to Labour in recent years, including a recent £50,000 donation to help in their fight to keep Green Party leader Zack Polanski out of Sir Keir Starmer’s former Holborn and St Pancras seat.
The report, called Politics is no longer for sale, was commissioned by Mr Vince’s own company, Ecotricity.
It says the UK has a “public trust problem” exacerbated by a parliamentary system where parties are “funded by wealthy private interests”.
Autonomy’s previous research identified 373 companies that both donate to political parties and receive public contracts, with more than £1,294 flowing back to these firms in contracts for every £1 donated since 2000.
The report also points to Reform UK’s recent £72 million in donations, most of which came from two billionaires, as evidence of how concentrated political funding has become.
Reform has previously defended the donations, with party leader Nigel Farage telling the Sunday Times he thought the reaction would be “far worse” but had actually resulted in “some grudging respect… the fact that I managed to pull off a coup of that magnitude, I think people were quite impressed”.
Autonomy’s report sets out two possible funding models:
- A “democratic multiplier” which would pay parties holding at least one Commons seat £50 a year for each paid-up member, with a floor of £3 million a year to help smaller parties.
- A “democracy voucher” scheme which would let every eligible voter allocate £1 of public money to a party of their choice each year.
The report compares the plan with France, Germany and Canada, which either ban or heavily restrict corporate donations to political parties. France’s system costs around €65 million a year, and has been in place since 1988, Autonomy said.
The Institute estimates the UK scheme would cost around £50 million a year at current membership and turnout levels, with funding coming from a reduction in the share of Crown Estate profits paid to the monarchy in the Sovereign Grant.
Dr Will Stronge, chief executive at the Autonomy Institute, said: “Our research has shown time and again that the current system of political financing is unfair and structurally corrosive.
“When a small number of wealthy donors can bankroll a party’s rise, and when donors and government contractors turn out to be the same firms, the link between votes and political power starts to break down.
“France, Germany and Canada have all shown that a democracy can function, and function well, without corporate and billionaire money bankrolling its parties.
“At roughly £50 million a year, a publicly funded alternative is a small price for a political system the public can actually trust.”