The Committee on Standards in Public Life, chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly, opened a new inquiry into political party finance on Wednesday of last week and will publish its recommendations in Spring 2011: http://www.public-standards.gov.uk/OurWork/Party_Political_Finance___Public_Hearings.html
Trade union funding of the Labour Party will once again come under close scrutiny. As the BBC noted back in July the Conservatives would like major changes to the ‘rules surrounding payments made by members of trade unions that are passed to the Labour Party’, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude is on record calling trade union political fund arrangements a ‘totally bogus process’: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10544760
The Coalition agreement reference to removing ‘big money’ from British politics was a statement of intent to break the union Labour link. Affiliated unions and the Labour Party now face an uphill task blocking measures to cap union donations (and affiliations) such as those successfully vetoed following the Hayden Phillips review in 2007: http://www.partyfundingreview.gov.uk/
For background reading go to:
http://unisonactive.blogspot.com/2010/08/tiresome-tories-at-it-again-attacking.html
