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UK Local Elections 2026
3SEP

Rayner's finance Bill goes to the Lords

2 min read
12:41UTC

Angela Rayner moved Third Reading at 7.52pm on Wednesday 2 September; seven minutes later the Commons passed the party-finance Bill by 411 votes to 102.

PoliticsAssessed
Key takeaway

The party-finance Bill has cleared the Commons and now waits on the Lords, with no date set.

Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, moved Third Reading of the Representation of the People Bill at 7.52pm on Wednesday 2 September, the final Commons vote on a bill's text 1. Seven minutes later the House divided, the formal recorded vote, and passed it by 411 votes to 102 2. The Bill now goes to the House of Lords, where peers can amend every clause before Royal Assent.

This is the finance Bill that Parliament dropped before May's council elections and revived in July, after the Government accepted the Rycroft Review in full . Reform UK fought the whole local campaign without it. It arrives at the Lords still carrying the retrospective cryptoasset ban tabled in the summer , which means the rules will reach gifts accepted months before anyone signs the Act.

Danny Kruger, Reform UK's member of Parliament for East Wiltshire, called the Bill "a flagrantly partisan attempt to kneecap Reform UK" and objected to the exemption written in for trade union money 3. Katie Lam told the House the Conservatives would oppose it. Lisa Smart confirmed Liberal Democrat support, citing votes at 16 and the "know your donor" checks the Bill imposes on parties 4.

Which parties made up the 102 Noes has not been published, so the composition of the opposition stays unconfirmed beyond the Conservatives' stated intent 5. The Bill's stages record still carries no date for peers to begin 6. A Commons majority of that size usually survives the Lords intact, but until Royal Assent the crypto ban, the overseas cap and the absent donation limit all remain amendable text rather than law.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Third Reading is the final Commons vote on a bill's full text before it moves to the House of Lords for its own scrutiny. MPs voted 411 to 102 to pass the Representation of the People Bill, which rewrites the rules on how political parties can be funded and who can register to vote from abroad. The Conservatives voted against it and Reform UK's Danny Kruger called it 'a flagrantly partisan attempt to kneecap Reform UK', while the Liberal Democrats confirmed their support. The bill is not yet law: the Lords still have to debate it, and no date for that has been set.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Labour's Commons majority, plus confirmed Liberal Democrat support, gave the Bill more than enough votes regardless of Conservative or Reform-aligned opposition. Reform UK holds five Westminster seats, too few to threaten passage even when its MPs frame the Bill as targeted at the party.

What could happen next?
  • Meaning

    Reform UK's five Westminster seats made its objections rhetorically loud but numerically irrelevant to the vote.

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
This Event
Rayner's finance Bill goes to the Lords
A bill written to police party money cleared the elected chamber the night before Reform UK's conference opened in Birmingham.
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.