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We must have transparency in political funding – here’s why
By: []
Date: None
British politics operates a bit like a protection racket. The rich and powerful pay a small portion of their money to Boris Johnson’s Tories, who in return ensure that said wealth and power are protected.
We saw this earlier this week, when it was revealed that 20% of Tory donors are property tycoons, who gave £60m to the party over the past decade. Meanwhile, the Conservatives work to rip up planning laws to ensure that said tycoons can design our future towns, cities and homes on their own terms.
We’ve seen it with the whole web of Tory donors who coincidentally keep getting lucrative COVID contracts.
But we can’t see it in the millions of pounds funnelled to the party from dark money donor groups. That doesn’t mean there isn’t protection money there too, though. Since Johnson became PM, my colleagues revealed last week, £2.6m has been smuggled to his party through a loophole in the law, relating to something called unincorporated associations.
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‘Unincorporated association’ is just a bit of legal jargon for any group of people who come together for a purpose, but don’t register themselves in a formal structure, as a company does. Most clubs or societies are unincorporated associations.
But this perfectly homely form, which emerged so any group of people can get together, agree a constitution and play bridge or campaign to save a local building, also allows the mega-rich to pump money into our politics while hiding their identities.
[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/we-must-have-transparency-in-political-funding-heres-why/
