Cleaning up politics: a three-step plan

13th July 2026
REPORT | Will Stronge

Summary:


• Research has found that the share of political donations from those giving £1 million or more has risen thirty-five-fold in under a decade, from around 1% in 2015 to over a third in 2024.

• This briefing sets out a three-step plan for cleaning up British politics: reforms that would cost the Treasury nothing but could restore public trust in politics within the first hundred days of a new government.

• Cap donations at £20,000 to end the era of the mega-donor, while protecting genuine grassroots and membership-based giving.

Close the “giver and taker” loophole by banning public contracts for companies that donate to the governing party.

End second jobs for MPs, so Parliament’s attention goes to constituents rather than outside earners.

• Each reform is a change to existing rules, not a spending commitment, and each can be delivered through legislation already before Parliament or through the House’s own Code of Conduct.


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