Donation caps and real source-of-funds checks missing from party-finance reform

The Representation of the People Bill, introduced on 12 February 2026, raises the Electoral Commission's maximum fine from £20,000 to £500,000, introduces Know Your Donor checks, tightens unincorporated-association rules, caps overseas-elector donations at £100,000 through the Rycroft Review amendments, and imposes a moratorium on crypto donations. Spotlight on Corruption's analysis sets out what remains. Donation size has no cap. The company-donation test rests on revenue rather than taxed UK profit, so shell companies with pass-through revenue can still donate. Unincorporated associations register only above a high threshold rather than at £500. The crypto measure is a moratorium rather than a ban, and no new criminal-enforcement measures arrived even though police and the CPS routinely deprioritise electoral finance crime.

A single donor can still legally give unlimited sums. Foreign money retains two routes: UK-registered companies that make no UK profit, and unincorporated associations that never check their own funders. As campaign spending escalates, election integrity rests on the narrowest loophole left open.

Amendments or a successor bill: annual donation caps, a taxed-UK-profits test for corporate donations, registration for unincorporated associations donating over £500, a permanent crypto ban, updated section 54A source rules, and a dedicated electoral-crime investigation capability.

// State-led: Instrument: party-finance amendments or successor bill (donation caps, source-of-funds tests, electoral-crime investigation capability).

A live party-finance bill leaves donation size uncapped and foreign money routable through profitless UK shells, and the amendment window is open now.