The House of Lords gave the Representation of the People Bill its Second Reading, the first debate on a bill's principle, on 14 September1. The Bill reached peers after the Commons passed it at Third Reading. Committee stage, where peers go through it line by line, had no sitting date as of 5 October, and 73 amendments were tabled for it2.
Four would limit how much one donor can give, the ceiling the Commons declined to write in when it added a cryptoasset ban and an overseas-elector cap instead:
- Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour) would cut the cap on gifts from overseas electors from £100,000 to £10,000. - Lord Carter of Haslemere would let ministers set an annual cap for every donor by order, on an Electoral Commission recommendation. - Lord Cromwell would cap individuals at £100,000 every five years and a party's total donation income at £7m a year. - Lord Carlile of Berriew would cap any UK-resident donor at £5m a year, counting connected persons together.
The designs differ most on who sets the number. Carter's leaves it to a ministerial order and the regulator's advice, so Parliament would not vote on a figure; Cromwell's and Carlile's write one into the Bill, and either would stop a single donor giving Reform UK what Ben Delo gave it in September. As tabled, none of the four reaches a gift made before the new law takes effect.
Conservative frontbench peers argued against retrospective rules at Second Reading3. The Bill already reaches back once, though: its cryptoasset ban is backdated to 25 March.
