It is highly welcome that the government has launched an independent review into foreign interference in our politics. We have long called for an inquiry into, and more transparency about, the scale and nature of such interference.
This review could not come at a more crucial time after recent influence efforts by China and Russia have been exposed, and as the US has highlighted its intention to focus on “cultivating resistance” within European countries.
We urge the government to make sure that Philip Rycroft has the powers and scope to follow the evidence on foreign interference. In particular, he must have a full remit to take a wide-ranging look at:
- Weaknesses in our lobbying rules, including the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), that allow secretive access to MPs and ministers
- How foreign influence operations use gaps in the system, from ‘Friends of’ groups and APPGs to funding think tanks and paying for foreign trips for MPs to influence UK political opinion
- The wider social media landscape, including whether there is a need for wider regulation of social media algorithms in relation to political content, and greater powers for the Electoral Commission to get information from social media companies
- The lack of criminal enforcement of political finance rules as well as of the FIRS
- How the forthcoming Elections Bill can be strengthened by the introduction of annual spending limits and transparency for political parties and campaigners, a ban on crypto donations, an upper limit on donations to any one party to protect party finance being captured by a few multi-millionaire individuals, and a tougher criminal offence for impermissible donations made via a third party.
Susan Hawley, Executive Director of Spotlight on Corruption, said:
“This review must be a meaningful and no-holds-barred stocktake of the vulnerabilities in our system.
“It is a major opportunity to make the forthcoming Elections Bill as robust as possible to ensure that UK politics and UK elections are run to represent the interests of British voters and are not swayed by the influence of hostile foreign powers or multi-millionaires with their own political agendas.
“But it must also go broader and look at whether our lobbying rules are fit for purpose, our social media is regulated in a way that allows a level playing field for political activity, and our criminal enforcement is properly resourced and skilled to tackle foreign interference.”
