Clegg rules out extra taxpayer money as party funding solution

Tuesday, 15 November 2011 12:55 PM

By Alex Stevenson Follow @alex__stevenson

Political party coffers will not be boosted by extra money from taxpayers, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has told MPs.

The surprise move comes just a week before the committee on standards in public life publishes the findings of its review of party funding, which is expected to propose a cap on individuals' donations of as little as £10,000.

Experts have said such a shift would result in a significant drop in the funding of all parties - and recommended increasing the amount of money provided to parties by the state as a solution to the problem.

Today Mr Clegg made clear he was opposed to the move, however.

"This is not the right time to ask our hard-pressed taxpayers to pay out more to political parties at a time when they're having to deal with so many cuts and savings elsewhere," the deputy PM told the Commons.

Until now the coalition's attitude to more state funding was far from clear. Liberal Democrats would benefit from the shift as they would lose out the least, but Conservatives have suggested they could lose as much as a third of their funding with a £50,000 cap.

Any solution to the party funding solution which addresses Labour's reliance on union funding but ignores wealthy donors to the Tory party would be unlikely to reach agreement.

Mr Clegg appeared to be preparing for dissent ahead of next week's report.

"I would like to proceed with as much cross-party consensus as possible," he added.

"I'm very keen to work towards that aim. But I say again to the House, no one should doubt the determination of this coalition government to deliver reform in this area."

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