Russia report highlights risk of foreign interference in House of Lords "It is notable that a number of Members of the House of Lords have business interests linked to Russia." Posted 22 Jul 2020
Dark ads and dodgy donors: How the Queen’s Speech missed a chance to protect our democracy There was a conspicuous silence in the Queen’s Speech on Monday. Despite announcing a bill to protect ‘electoral integrity’ (by making it harder for us all to vote), there was inaction on updating Britain’s outdated... Posted 18 Oct 2019
A new all-party group has been launched to update Britain’s ‘wild west’ election campaign rules As we get closer to the European elections, here’s a worrying fact: our elections are currently wide open to foreign interference and dodgy campaigning. Election rules in the UK haven’t been updated since the year... Posted 15 May 2019
ERS in the Press – March 2019 Brexit might be dominating the news, but the rolling constitutional crisis that we call Westminster is still up to its usual tricks. We’ve spent the last month getting press attention for some of our biggest... Posted 29 Mar 2019
Money could flood into British politics under planned law The Overseas Electors Bill, which returned to the Commons last week, has a sound purpose – to end the current limit on how long Britons can live abroad and still be able to vote. But,... Posted 25 Mar 2019
Tax ‘exiles’ are funnelling money into our political parties. It’s time to close the loophole Here’s a fairly basic democratic principle: those who pour money into our political parties in exchange for influence should – at the very least –be based here at home. Sadly, even that low bar is... Posted 07 Mar 2019
The threat of dark money goes beyond Brexit Two and a half years on from the EU referendum, the result is still being discussed and debated. Arguably more important though is another story: whether the rules of the game are bust. The weekend... Posted 07 Nov 2018
Why we can’t leave our democracy at the whim of tech giants like Facebook Another vote is never far away. But even outside of election time, campaigning rumbles on. Each day, a lot of cash is spent influencing political debate. These days though, that’s not just people delivering leaflets... Posted 25 Oct 2018
Are we about to witness an ‘arms race’ in Brexit spending? Over the weekend, the co-founder of the Superdry fashion label donated £1m to the People’s vote campaign, with the funds set to be used to conduct “one of the most detailed polling exercises ever undertaken... Posted 21 Aug 2018
Why money still rules the roost in British Politics If ever there was a story which revealed the disproportionate influence exerted by big party donors, it was the on the front page of The Times on Tuesday. The article set out what has been... Posted 31 Jan 2018