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Commons refuses a cap on donations

2 min read

10:25UTC

Katie Lam's overseas-elector review fell 166 to 346, and Stella Creasy withdrew her £500,000 donation cap after a minister promised a taskforce instead.

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PoliticsAssessed

Key takeaway

The Commons restricted the form and origin of donations but refused to cap how much one donor gives.

The House of Commons defeated three non-government new clauses to the Representation of the People Bill on Wednesday 2 September, then wrote two of its own into the text⁠¹. A new clause is an amendment that inserts a whole new section into a bill at Report stage, the point at which the full House can rewrite what a committee has already agreed. This was the last chance to change the Bill before it left the elected chamber.

Katie Lam, the shadow Housing Secretary, tabled New Clause 65, which would have set up an independent review of overseas elector registration. It fell 166 to 346. Her New Clause 67, banning campaign material in languages other than English, fell 105 to 410. Lisa Smart of the Liberal Democrats lost New Clause 88, which would have established a Royal Commission on donation caps and spending limits, by 85 to 427⁠².

The two Government clauses that did pass reach the instrument a donor uses and the country the donor lives in. New Clause 72 makes cryptoasset donations impermissible from 25 March 2026, the retrospective date Steve Reed first tabled in July, and New Clause 116 caps what contributors based overseas may give⁠³. Liam Byrne's summer push for a permanent statutory ban had already tested how far the House would go on who may fund a party, and this was the answer.

Nobody who wanted a ceiling on the size of a single gift got one. Stella Creasy withdrew her own £500,000 cap amendment after Florence Eshalomi, the democracy minister, promised a cross-government taskforce on mega-donors, according to the Guardian⁠⁴. The Government has published no terms of reference for it. What leaves the Commons regulates the form of a donation and the residence of the person making it, and says nothing about the amount.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Report stage is the point in a bill's journey through the House of Commons where MPs debate and vote on changes line by line, before a final vote on the whole bill. Any MP can propose a new clause, extra text to add or a rule to change, but it only survives if a majority backs it. On 2 September, the Government's own proposed changes, a ban on cryptocurrency donations and a cap on money from electors who live abroad, were added. Three changes proposed by other MPs, on registration checks, foreign-language leaflets and a review of overall donation limits, were voted down. Labour MP Stella Creasy dropped her own plan for a £500,000 cap on any single gift after a minister promised to set up a taskforce instead, so the bill still has no upper limit on how much one person can give.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

By Report stage, the Government had its own crypto-donation clause on the table: Steve Reed tabled the amendment behind NC72 on 14 July, the same day backbencher Liam Byrne separately tabled NC34 seeking a permanent statutory ban. Neither NC34 nor NC72's predecessor is among the three clauses recorded as defeated on 2 September, so it is NC72, the Government's own version, that MPs were left voting on; what happened to NC34 between July and September is not established by this run's sources.

The defeat margins across the three non-government clauses that were voted down widen through the day, 166-346, then 105-410, then 85-427, tracking a shift from investigatory asks toward institutional ones: MPs proved readier to reject a new standing body than a review.

What could happen next?

Consequence
The Bill leaves the Commons with no ceiling on the size of a single donation, so a gift on the scale of Ben Delo's £4m remains lawful once it clears the Lords.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: This is the second time in five months an ambitious mechanism inside this Bill has stalled or fallen rather than passed: it entered committee stage on 18 March but was still stuck at its 9th sitting when Parliament prorogued on 29 April, leaving the crypto ban absent from law on 7 May.

Counter-parallel: Unlike that April collapse, which stalled the whole Bill's timetable, NC88's defeat did not stop the rest of Report stage: NC72 and NC116 passed in the same sitting, so 2 September shows selective survival rather than a repeat of the earlier wholesale stall.

Consensus view: The Government's own new clauses, NC72 and NC116, target donation form and donor category rather than gift size, adding a retrospective cryptoasset ban and an overseas-elector cap while leaving no ceiling on any single gift.

Counter-view: Lisa Smart's defeated NC88 argued for a Royal Commission on donation caps and expenditure limits, a comprehensive review MPs rejected 85 to 427.

Key tension: Whether targeted anti-abuse clauses close the gaps donors have already exploited, or merely postpone the comprehensive cap-and-limit question NC88 tried to force onto the agenda.

Sources:UK Parliament·Hansard, House of Commons

Mentions:Representation of the People Bill →Katie Lam →Lisa Smart →Stella Creasy →Florence Eshalomi →Florence →Liam Byrne →Parliament →Liberal Democrats →Steve Reed →House of Commons →

First Reported In

Update #17 · Reform's £4m arrived as cash, not crypto

UK Parliament· 3 Sept 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Crypto donation ban backdated to March

NC72 enacted the crypto-donation ban Reed tabled at Report stage in July.

Occurred 14 Jul 2026

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This Event

Commons refuses a cap on donations

Three defeated clauses and one withdrawn amendment left the Bill with no ceiling at all on the size of a single political gift.

Led to

Peers table four caps on party donors

Peers tabled donation caps of the kind the Commons refused to write into the Bill.

Occurred 14 Sept 2026

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Different Perspectives

Scottish National Party / John Swinney

Swinney told the SNP conference in Aberdeen on 17 October that Scotland is ready for independence, but set no referendum date, bill or Section 30 request. He launched a new campaign instead and extended the £2 bus fare cap to the north east from April 2027.

Liberal Democrats / Ed Davey

Davey ruled out a national partnership with the Greens on 19 October after their Brighton conference passed a "Zionism is racism" motion, and wrote to two Jewish community bodies. He left untouched the councils the two parties already run together.

Reform UK / Richard Tice

Tice alleged ITV's reporter used false details to get a press-office job and said ITV had "likely broken the law", telling members not to speak to it until it apologises. Reform also opened investigations into members, with some suspensions, so the party is contesting the broadcaster and disciplining councillors at once.

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.