Tech billionaire Elon Musk is part of a foreign government structure and should not be allowed to funnel money into UK politics, a Labour MP has said.
Stella Creasy joined MPs’ calls on the Government to “deal with the businesses” that foreign individuals can use to donate to UK political parties.
Communities minister Rushanara Ali said the Government is looking at a “series of policy interventions” to “protect our democracy”.
Stella Creasy has called on more to be done to limit the ways foreign individuals can donate to British political parties (Gareth Fuller/PA)
Individuals must be eligible to vote and on the UK electoral register if they want to give money to a political party.
But some organisations are also able to donate, including UK-registered companies that trade in the country, even if they are owned by foreign individuals.
Ms Creasy said: “We have charity-gagging laws, but we do nothing to deal with the businesses that are behind this and are funding these activities.”
The MP for Walthamstow said “donating to a political party is a noble thing to do”, but described a possible donation by Mr Musk as a “national security threat”, which could have triggered an emergency meeting in Whitehall.
She told the Commons: “Even in these difficult political climes, it is extraordinary to think that the existential threat to our country’s democracy posed by the suggestion that Elon Musk could donate £100 million to any political party here hasn’t caused a Cobra meeting to be called, because it is a national security threat.
“A foreign agent, who is now part of the structures of a foreign state, openly talking about interfering in our democracy, buying it, boasting about doing so, and not the only one.”
Elon Musk was reportedly in talks with Nigel Farage about making a large donation to Mr Farage’s Reform UK party (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA)
Mr Musk oversees Washington’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), tasked with trying to “eliminate waste” in the American state.
He was reportedly in talks with Nigel Farage about making a donation to Reform UK, which has five MPs.
On the wider debate about political finance rules, Ms Creasy said: “Many of us now have third-party organisations active in our local communities trying to cause disinformation to disrupt our local democracy.”
Lloyd Hatton, the Labour MP for South Dorset who led Thursday’s debate, said Mr Musk could “easily go through his UK subsidiaries from his various companies”.
He said the £20,000 fine that election finance rule breaches can attract would be “not even small change to the world’s richest man”, as he described UK-registered companies as a “convenient vehicle” for foreign donors to make donations.
“I fear that our unhealthy dependence on a handful of large donors also poses a real risk of undue influence and capture by narrow vested interests,” Mr Hatton added, as he called on ministers to tighten the rules so “companies are only able to make donations from profits made in the UK in the last two years”.
He also said political parties should be made to identify the “true source” of donors’ funds.
Ellie Chowns, the Green Party MP for North Herefordshire, said the Electoral Commission had “very little in the way of teeth and very little in the way of limit” to take enforcement action.
She described “a problem at the heart of British politics” which had eroded trust, pointing to Office for National Statistics figures, which last year put public trust in political parties at 12%.
Labour MP Chris Hinchliff described a link between property developers’ donations and estates which do not align with town halls’ policies.
He said the Government should “ban all political donations from developers, those who work for them, and the lobbyists they employ”.
The MP for North East Hertfordshire said some new estates are “poorly designed, palpably unsustainable and outrageously overpriced”, adding: “The reason for this is so often because of the enormous financial and political pressure big developers are able to bring to bear on the debates around the future of our towns and villages in their relentless pursuit of profit maximisation.”
Ms Ali said: “Foreign money has no place in the UK’s political system, which is why the law is clear that foreign donations are not permitted, with the exception of donations from certain Irish sources to Northern Ireland political parties.”
She added: “We do not think the current rules provide strong enough safeguards, that is why the Government committed in our manifesto to protect our democracy by strengthening the rules around donations to political parties, including enhanced safeguards against foreign donations.
“We are considering a series of policy interventions, such as enhanced checks via recipients of donations and tighter controls on donors, including more restrictions around company donations.”