Feeble funding plans will not stop arms race

12.00.00am GMT Mon 16th Jun 2008

Commenting on the Government White Paper launched today on party funding, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"This is a feeble set of flaccid proposals that will do nothing to stop the arms race between the parties, or clean up party funding by capping big contributions. There are no caps on donations and no caps on local spending.

"Lord Ashcroft, who accounted for 8 per cent of all Tory funding last year, can continue to try to buy any number of parliamentary seats.

"Jack Straw has effectively given a veto to the Conservative party on the curbs that we need to clean up politics, even though everyone knows that the Tories only broke off cross-party talks last October because they were trousering cash.

"In the quarter when the talks broke down, they received £9.7 million, up from £3.7 million in the previous quarter and a record quarter for a non-election year. Millions of votes, not millions of pounds, should decide British elections."