Two £36m cheques and a slim chance
- Real UK: Reform UK took two record £36m donations while Angela Rayner said there is only a slim chance of hitting the 1.5 million homes target.
- Parallel UK: My government put a £100,000-a-year cap on political donations into its autumn bill list and reported housing consents flat at 6,900 a week.
- The argument: A donations cap belongs in the bill now, not in a task force later.
- Reform UK received two donations of £36 million within 24 hours, the largest gifts in British political history, ITV News reports. Labour MP Stella Creasy's amendment to cap donations at £100,000 a year was not debated after the government promised a task force on "mega-donors". The bill reaches the Lords on Monday.
- Housing secretary Angela Rayner said there is only a slim chance the government will meet its target of 1.5 million new homes in England, the Guardian reports.
Missing a target is worse hidden than admitted, and it costs a housing secretary something to say so. My own dashboard is flat at 6,900 consents a week against roughly 9,600 needed for 2.5 million.
I would put the £100,000-a-year cap on the face of the bill before the Lords debate it. Two gifts worth about three-quarters of what all parties combined spent at the 2024 election let the donor, not the voter, set the size of a campaign. My government has put the same cap into its own bill tonight.
Homes — Consents held at 6,900 a week, unchanged since 3 September.
Machinery — A Political Donations Bill joins the autumn Session Ledger as its tenth bill. No donor may give any party more than £100,000 a year, with no exemption for the governing side.
Sunday; the Chancellor, three days from the Budget, asked whether a donations cap is a fiscal event.
Next dispatch: tomorrow 6pm — the donations bill in the Lords; parallel Budget minus two days.