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UK Local Elections 2026
3SEP

Commons refuses a cap on donations

2 min read
12:41UTC

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.

← Back to Reform's £4m arrived as cash, not cryptoJump to analysis ↓
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 text 1. 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 427 2.

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 give 3. 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 Guardian 4. 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.

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 →
First Reported In

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

UK Parliament· 3 Sept 2026
Read original →
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
Read story →
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.
Different Perspectives
Scottish Labour members
Scottish Labour members
Scottish Labour's published leadership nominations show 33 MPs and MSPs backing Michael Marra against 12 for Joe Fagan, with members voting until 17 September and a result on 19 September. Elected members do not cast the ballot, so the nomination gap measures the parliamentary party rather than the membership that will decide it.
Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission
The Electoral Commission published its Q2 2026 donations register on 3 September, recording Reform UK's £5.44m as the highest of any party and Ben Delo's £4m as two cash gifts. The register records a donation's form and amount, not the origin of a donor's wealth, so a cash gift shows the same as any other.
Reform UK
Reform UK
Danny Kruger, Reform UK's MP for East Wiltshire, called the Bill "a flagrantly partisan attempt to kneecap Reform UK" during the 2 September debate, objecting to its trade-union exemption. Reform enters its Birmingham conference having topped Q2's donor register at £5.44m, £4m of it in cash from Ben Delo, a form the new ban does not reach.
Ian Davidson, Acting Returning Officer for Clacton
Ian Davidson, Acting Returning Officer for Clacton
Davidson's office printed a 90cm ballot paper for the record 34-candidate field, with nothing in electoral law capping candidate numbers or the £500 deposit each pays. He expects the paper's size to raise printing costs and slow the count into the early hours, a strain that follows from the major parties' boycott, not from turnout.
Labour Party
Labour Party
Labour gained Penistone East from Reform on 20 August but lost Harraby South to Reform the same night, a wash that undercuts any claim of momentum. The party can point to beating Reform in a genuinely fought contest, but not to a pattern running only in its favour.
Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats took two of Reform's May wards, Almondbury on 13 August and St Neots Eynesbury on 20 August, the latter on a 29.8-point rise in their own vote share. Both results let the party claim it is the beneficiary when voters turn against Reform, not Labour or the Conservatives.