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Political Parties: Funding

My Lords, I welcome the Phillips report. It is one of those reports that seems to be about a detail of the democratic process but actually goes to the heart of it. First, at the heart of the democratic instinct, which is one we hope to foster in our society and which needs more fostering, is the equal value of all individuals symbolised in the votes that we cast. In a money-driven culture, there is a risk that people will feel that, although individuals are equal when they stand with their pencil in the polling booth, the real influence in political process lies somewhere else. This report is to be welcomed, and noble Lords have addressed it with great energy. Secondly, a problem we face is that there is the sort of public suspicion now about political parties that used to be attached to trade unions. There used to be talk of ““union barons””. Perhaps parties need to recognise the degree of public suspicion that they are not really controlled by their members and no longer meet members’ aspirations. That is perhaps why membership has declined. It is important that we address party funding not by trying to find the loophole in each other’s arrangements but in recognising that in all our arrangements there is a need to recover public confidence in the parties themselves.