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Political Parties: Funding

My Lords, Sir Hayden Phillips’s committee has a completely unlimited term of reference to look at the funding of political parties generally. It will consider voluntary and even compulsory donations. The noble Lord refers to a concern that many people have: is it a sensible use of money to give it to political parties? That is one of the issues that the committee will consider. Everything is open, and I fully agree with everything that the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, says. There is a much more profound problem than simply loans, which we need to address, because the health of our political system depends on the health of our political parties.