Hayden Phillips
Former senior civil servant WHO led the 2006-07 review of UK party funding.
Peers tabling four donation caps on the Representation of the People Bill in September 2026 reopened the question Sir Hayden Phillips tried to settle in March 2007, when his party-funding review proposed a £50,000 annual limit per donor.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Hayden Phillips
Mentioned in: Peers table four caps on party donors
UK Local Elections 2026Background
Sir Hayden Phillips was a career civil servant whose review of party funding, commissioned by Tony Blair in 2006, was the main British attempt to CAP political donations. His report, Strengthening Democracy: Fair and Sustainable Funding of Political Parties, appeared in March 2007.
Earlier he served as deputy chef de Cabinet to Roy Jenkins at the European Commission, Permanent Secretary at the Department for National Heritage from 1992 to 1998, and Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Department from 1998 to 2004. He went on to chair the National Theatre.
He died in 2026 at the age of 83. His review remains the benchmark for any proposal to limit what one donor may give a party.
His 2007 cap found new rivals
Phillips reported to Tony Blair in March 2007 with a plan to limit any single donor to £50,000 a year. Cross-party talks on his proposals broke down later that year, and no cap followed.
After the Representation of the People Bill passed its Second Reading in the Lords on 14 September 2026, peers tabled four rival limits, the tightest allowing £100,000 over five years and the loosest £5m annually. His £50,000 a year sat between those poles. As drafted, none of the new amendments would reach gifts made before a law takes effect. Phillips died in 2026, aged 83, as the argument he had framed nearly two decades earlier returned to Parliament.