Law forcing political parties to reveal donors clears first hurdle
LEGISLATION forcing political parties in Northern Ireland to publish the names of major donors was put before Parliament yesterday.
The move by Secretary of State James Brokenshire came hours after the Electoral Commission said the failure to bring forward legislation was undermining the public’s confidence and trust in the democratic process. Mr Brokenshire announced earlier this year that he would bring forward legislation to enable the publication of all donations and loans received by parties here from July onwards.
The Commission had expected to publish the first set of data on donations yesterday, alongside information on donations to parties in the rest of the UK.
However, it was unable to do so as the legislation had not been brought forward.
Commission head Ann Watt said she was extremely disappointed and, several hours later, the Northern Ireland Office said that legislation had been laid before Parliament “to provide for transparency of political donations” here.
In response to the announcement that the Transparency of Donations & Loans (Northern Ireland Political Parties) Order 2018 had now been laid in Parliament, Ms Watt said: “Transparency in how our political parties are funded is key to ensuring public trust and confidence in the democratic process.
“We hope to be able to begin publishing this information early in the New Year.”
The legislation will provide for the full publication of information relating to political donations and loans received by all political parties here after July 1. It will now require debate and approval in Parliament.
The Alliance Party and the Greens currently publish details of donations voluntarily. The DUP did not comment but Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy said: “If the DUP and the British Government were serious about transparency in government then they would support the retrospective publication from January 2014 of all donations over the reportable threshold.”
Alliance leader Naomi Long added: “While this move is about time, sadly the Secretary of State has failed to maximise transparency by backdating this to the earliest possible date provided for in legislation, January 2014.” An SDLP spokesman said: “The SDLP has nothing to hide.
“Colum Eastwood wrote to the Secretary of State urging him to set a date after which party donations should be published. Our goal is to increase transparency and confidence.”
A UUP spokesman added: “The UUP has consistently taken the view that we wish to see full transparency and disclosure in terms of donations and loans, the only question being timing.”