• The UK has a public trust problem: this is exacerbated by a parliamentary system whereby public officials and their political parties are funded by wealthy private interests.
• This paper outlines how we could reform the system entirely, get private money out of politics, restore some trust amongst the public whilst also giving every eligible voter greater material leverage in their political commitments.
• We propose two models in this paper. Both try to balance democratic engagement with baseline economic security for the party system and both have their merits.
• A dual-channel ‘multiplier’ model, whereby those parties with representation in Parliament receive public money, annually, as a multiplier of membership numbers of each party.
• A ‘democracy voucher’ model, whereby each eligible voter in the UK can digitally allocate £1 of public funds to a party of their choice annually.
• We propose that funding for either system should come from a redirection of the Sovereign Grant that usually goes to the Crown Estate.
• The annual costs would come to around £50 million per year, which could increase depending on which system you use and depending on the political engagement of the UK population.
• This is a relatively tiny amount of money, given current state spending, and yet it would achieve a great deal for our democracy and for political engagement.
