Political parties must learn to say no to donations from rich benefactors

Editorial: If parties had to spend less on election campaigns, that would be no bad thing

The Conservative Party has accepted £1.6m in donations from Malik Karim since 2014 (Supplied)

Openness is the first defence against corruption. In a liberal democracy, people should be free to give money to political causes that they support. That means there is a danger that rich people will seek to use donations to secure advantages from parties in government. Which is why laws requiring the disclosure of donations are so necessary.

It is surprising, looking back, that it was not until the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 that parties were required to publish the amounts of donations they received and the names of donors. Before then, the Conservative Party – the main recipient of large private donations – thought it was fine to accept donations in secret, including from abroad.

It is equally surprising that when the Labour government brought in this law, it left a loophole, in that loans did not have to be declared – and it took advantage of this loophole in raising money for its 2005 election campaign. Neither main party has a monopoly of virtue on this subject.