LABOUR DONOR DALE VINCE BACKS BAN ON PRIVATE PARTY DONATIONS

Dale Vince, an environmental entrepreneur and Labour donor, has backed a report calling for an end to private funding of UK political parties. Vince said British democracy is "increasingly up for sale to the highest bidder" and should be made "squeaky clean". He supported proposals from the Autonomy Institute to replace the current system with public funding of political parties. The Autonomy Institute estimates the change would cost around £50 million a year, which it suggests could be funded by reallocating money currently designated for the royal family. The report, titled "Politics is no longer for sale", was commissioned by Vince's company, Ecotricity.

The report states the UK has a "public trust problem", which it attributes to a system in which parties are "funded by wealthy private interests". It cites earlier Autonomy Institute research identifying 373 companies that both donate to political parties and hold public contracts, with the institute calculating that more than £1,294 has flowed back to these firms in contracts for every £1 donated since 2000. The report also points to Reform UK's £72 million in donations, most of which came from two billionaires, as an example of concentrated political funding. Vince, who has donated several million pounds to Labour, including a recent £50,000 donation connected to efforts to keep Green Party leader Zack Polanski out of Sir Keir Starmer's former Holborn and St Pancras seat, said large donations "distort" rather than "level" the political playing field.

Vince said a publicly funded system would cost "less than the cost of a packet of crisps per person" and described it as his preferred "end goal" for party financing. He said he has personally called for a ban on all political donations "for some time". Reform UK has previously defended its donations, with party leader Nigel Farage telling a newspaper he did not wish to discuss the details of the party's two billionaire donors. No government body has confirmed any plan to adopt the Autonomy Institute's proposals.