Only one answer to Reform's £72 million question: votes must be earned, not bought – Christine Jardine
If a looming by-election goes well for Labour, Andy Burnham could go for a snap general election before Nigel Farage has a chance to spend his party’s new wealth
It’s conference time again in the political world, and far from being a jolly at the seaside, this autumn is likely to be dominated by the one big question on everyone’s minds. The £72 million question. What do we do about Reform and their huge pot of cash?
It was a challenging enough question before, but now that they have a war chest unlike anything we have ever seen in British electoral politics, the government, in particular, have been given a bit of a head scratcher.
Until last week, the general consensus amongst colleagues was that a snap election was unlikely. The informed thinking was that the Prime Minister would use the time to gain some big wins and inject some much-needed stability into both party and country, although they might call an election a bit early, as Labour often do.
But those two whopping great donations to Reform from sometime foreign-based crypto-billionaires have changed the game, and the stakes are so much higher than they were.
An important by-election looms
The Prime Minister now faces a choice between waiting to see how Reform spends their massive wad of cash, or going for an unpredictable snap election which could add him to the list of Prime Ministers who didn’t last a year. Of course, the first indicator of what might be the best course of action will be the by-election in former Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s vacated seat.
To date it has been billed as a fight between Labour and the Greens, and while that will undoubtedly be an important tussle, we will all now also be watching the light blue corner to see if they now pack more punch.
If Labour win convincingly, and Reform fail as in both recent by-elections, Andy Burnham might yet decide to risk that snap election before Nigel Farage has time to splash his new cash. Electoral funding limits for a short campaign would restrict Farage’s spending power and therefore the opportunities to build an expensive infrastructure.
On the other hand, Burnham might still opt for waiting to see whether the ever-growing quagmire of donations sleaze envelops and drowns out his far-right opponents. And there is also the potential impact of anticipated electoral legislation, but it is yet to come into force.
Farage’s problem
My party, the Liberal Democrats, has long called for changes to keep foreign money out of our politics to ensure that our democracy cannot be tampered with by those living abroad. As the rules currently stand, anyone can give as much as they want to a political party, as long as they have registered to vote here.
There lieth the problem for Farage. In a recent interview, he said the donations are legal “today”. The irony of Reform’s massive injection of cash – which left me with images of Reform HQ as the dome in the Crystal Maze – is that it may well be short lived. If the donations are not legal, any money spent by Reform will have to be paid back.
We are entering a new era, uncharted territory, and we may only have one chance to protect what's best in British public and political life. Votes must be earned, not bought. The sooner the government can guarantee that, the better.
Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West
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