Labour bill doesn’t go far enough to stop foreign interference in UK politics

The Electoral Commission has rubbished claims that the government is taking a “zero-tolerance approach to foreign interference”, warning of loopholes in new legislation that will allow foreign oligarchs to continue pumping money into the political system.

Last week Labour introduced the long-awaited Representation of the People Bill, designed to strengthen checks around electoral funding and enable votes for 16-year-olds. The party said it would also stop “foreign actors” using their money “to interfere in the UK’s elections”.

But Vijay Rangarajan, chief executive of the Electoral Commission, told The Observer that it does not do enough to prevent overseas billionaires from interfering in British politics through “front” companies.

Currently a company only needs to be registered with Companies House to donate in the UK. Under the proposed legislation, as well as demonstrating that they are primarily owned or run by UK citizens, companies will be able to donate based on their total revenue. However, Rangarajan warned that by using this measure, instead of taxable profits, there was no guarantee that the money was derived from the UK. A company would also be able to donate sums totalling its entire supposed revenue multiple times over to individual politicians as well as the central party.

“If I set up a company and got a very nice consultancy contract with some oligarch who gives me £100m, that’s my turnover and I am immediately eligible to donate that £100m to a party, and every single one of its candidates, right now,” he said. “That doesn’t seem as though it’s any form of protection against oligarchs wanting to influence British politics.”

The bill also fails to get to grips with deepfakes, which Rangarajan described as an “acute issue”.

MPs and experts have become increasingly concerned about the scale, scope and sophistication of deepfakes. One backbench Labour MP, Emily Darlington, is planning to table amendments to address this loophole in part by extending existing laws “onto the online sphere and making sure platforms have responsibility”.

“The current laws were written for an analogue age – they were not written for the deepfake social media environment we live in now,” she said. “I think if we get this right we won’t need a social media ban [for under 16s]… If we legislate and make it a safe place for children, that’s much more constructive.”

Other backbench MPs are also planning to amend the bill to include a ban on cryptocurrency donations, although Rangarajan warned this may result in “pushing the whole thing out and underground and make it harder to track”.

Rangarajan stressed that while the bill was “90% there”, it would require further work over the coming months. “[It] doesn’t seem as though it’s any form of protection against oligarchs wanting to influence British politics,” he said.

Photograph by Kin Cheung/AP