It’s necessary to find out who is funding our politicians and to inquire as to why because without greater transparency, money runs the risk of inadvertently affecting our politics.
During this Parliament, wealthy individuals or corporations have donated more than ยฃ183 million to the British political system, directly into the bank accounts of political parties, all-party parliamentary groups, and the campaign funds and electoral districts of government ministers and MPs from all political parties.
Even though the UK is one of the least corrupt countries in the world, comprehension has been hampered for far too long by the way information about MPs’ outside income and who is ultimately supporting our politics is revealed.
Despite all the assurances of openness, it has been quite challenging to understand what is happening.
Records of financial transactions involving donors, corporations, and politicians are dispersed across numerous websites, platforms, registers, disclosures, and databasesโsome online, some in printโand frequently published in formats that make it difficult to compare or analyze them.
This dispersion may be by design or by accident.
๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ๐จ๐ฅ
The chaos is deceptive; it hides things. Due to its seeming acceptance within Westminster over a long period of time, lobbying activities, paid access, and influence-peddling are harder to locate, trace, and more easily obscure than they should be.
ย
๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ค ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ง๐๐๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฅ๐ญ๐๐ซ
Checking who is supporting and paying your MP as a voter shouldn’t be difficult or open to misunderstanding.
Money talks, and finding out who has any kind of financial connection to our leaders should be quick and easy.
Together with Tortoise Media, Sky News has created a searchable, interactive web tool to examine who is profiting from the UK political system’s money flow.
The Westminster Accounts will be publicly available to everyone via a website and app, and it offers new options for everyone to search by an MP’s name or a voter’s postcode, which are presently not feasible using Parliament’s own platforms.
Whose earnings during this Parliament have been the highest? Which funders support both parties and individual MPs? which businesses and individuals have contributed the most, and which MPs have benefited.
Greater transparency is urgently required. Westminster has recently felt bogged down in an endless discussion over lobbying and the impact of outside income.
The biggest individual donations to MPs across all political parties are now known to us by name.
For the remainder of this Parliament, we are dedicated to preserving and enhancing the Westminster Accounts.
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