Straw seeks party funding consensus
Straw seeks party funding consensus
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In his own words: It's all or nothing, but that's what we've been expecting all along. |  |
Tuesday, 16, May 2006 10:38
Jack Straw has promised that he will spend much of his time as the new leader of the Commons attempting to find a cross-party agreement on party funding.
Mr Straw, who was moved from foreign secretary to his new role as part of prime minister Tony Blair's dramatic cabinet shake-up earlier this month, said that full transparency of party funding was required.
His comments come as Scotland Yard continue to investigate claims that businessmen were offered peerages in exchange for donating money to political parties on a commercial loan basis.
"It is plainly very important that people should be able to trust the system of party funding because trust in politicians, for a variety of reasons, is too low and it needs to be improved," he told the Today programme.
"What we have to get across is that funding political parties and making donations to political parties is something that is not only respectable and ought to be celebrated – not in order that it purchases any influence – but that it is a selfless contribution to the functioning of our democracy."
Mr Straw said that he would be meeting representatives from other parties to negotiate an agreement on party funding.
"One of the things I hope to achieve by these all-party talks is what I hope will be an all-party consensus of not just a general kind, but an all-party agreement about the future of party funding," he added.
"It is to put funding on an even more transparent basis and then to be able to encourage citizens across the country to give in whatever sum they can afford."
Mr Straw said that the loopholes regarding loans that made headlines earlier this year were now being tackled.
"I hope that once we get to complete transparency there can be a kind of acknowledgment by some sections of the press that giving money to political parties is honourable."
Speaking on the same programme on the topic of Lords reform, Mr Straw also said that the Commons should continue to have exclusive powers in some areas of the legislative process.
"I want to see a more modern, more representative second chamber," he said.
"I want it to be effective. The trite phrase is that it should complement rather than rival the House of Commons."
The last reforms of the House of Lords in 1999 saw the majority of hereditary peers lose their seats.