Former Conservative Party chairman calls for extra state funding of political parties

Norman Fowler, a former chairman of the Conservative Party, writes for the Financial Times:

Public money already goes to the parties at Westminster but the prospect of increased state funding is guaranteed to provoke objections. Why should the taxpayer be forced to make a contribution to a party he or she hates? It is a powerful argument. I know – I have used it in the past.

The public needs to decide whether it is content with the present tarnished system where the suspicion remains that, politically, money talks. It also needs to decide whether there is any other way of preventing corruption in the process. Greater state funding would result in a more transparent and better regulated system but by itself it will not guarantee absolute probity. There is evidence that fundraisers have sought ways around whatever new rules have been introduced.

A tighter enforcement system should be accompanied by a new warning to the political parties that they should obey the rules or face the consequences. This system, however, would not eliminate the individual contribution. Sir Hayden proposed that matched funding would enable parties to receive £10 of public funding for each donation of £10 or more that they receive from anyone on the electoral register. The system could be capped but matched funding should act as an encouragement to the individual contributor.

I accept that there could scarcely be a worse financial climate to make the case for increased taxpayer support, even though the cost would be no more than £20m-£25m a year. But leaving the system unreformed will have its own consequences. If nothing is done it is only a matter of time before the issue once more explodes into scandal.