British democracy is for sale - can you help expose it?

From honours for Tory donors to lobbyists evading new transparency rules, the system is rotten. Sunlight is the only disinfectant

When you write a newsletter called ‘Democracy for Sale’ you probably shouldn’t be surprised when you see political honours sold for cold hard cash.

And yet even I was pretty shocked when the news dropped, late on an Easter Thursday afternoon, that Rishi Sunak has knighted Mohamed Mansour for services to, eh, giving £5million to the Conservative party.

The Tories seem a bit shy about their reliance on Mansour’s cash. He’s co-treasurer but isn’t - as I’ve written before - mentioned on the party website.

The government is reluctant to give out information about the Egyptian billionaire, too. For more than a year I have been sending FOI requests to find out how Mansour was appointed to the UK’s high level Investment Council but all I’ve received back is foot dragging and obfuscation. 

What we do know is that the British honours system is a complete scandal.

Dozens of Tory donors have been given seats in the House of Lords - that means they are legislators of life, even when they do not pass the Lords’ notoriously loose vetting.

The odds of so many major Tory donors in the UK population all ending up in the House of Lords is equivalent to entering the National Lottery 12 times in a row – and winning the jackpot every time.

There is a word for this: corruption. And yet far from changing the system, Sunak et al just introduce even more honours lists to reward even more cronies. 

Even Keir Starmer’s Labour seems to be reversing from his previous commitment to completely overhauling the Lords.

But the problem is not just the second chamber, it’s the whole system.

There is much more to be done, on this and many other stories.

In recent months, Democracy for Sales has forced the government to publish financial disclosures for a former Fujitsu boss and Tory donor who is paid £80,000 a year to chair a public agency and revealed how ‘dark money’ think tanks have written public policy. 

Can you upgrade to a paid subscription so we can expose more important stories about the corrosive influence of dark money on our politics? 

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On Wednesday, we revealed how a lobbyist used a loophole in new government transparency rules to evade scrutiny and create “faux legitimacy” for their lucrative, unregulated parliamentary groups.

It’s fair to say the story - which also ran across the centre pages of the Times - had a big impact at Thomas Borwick’s College Green Group.

A source tells us embarrassed corporate clients weren’t happy. Within hours of the story breaking, College Green Group quietly changed the labels for its cross-party groups - again - in what looks like another attempt to duck the rules. 

This shouldn’t be the end of the story. Why, for example, was Richard Moriarty of the Financial Reporting Council at the ‘inaugural roundtable’ of College Green’s parliamentary policy liaison group on ESG? Mr Moriarty is a public servant. Did he not think to ask what was going on? 

Democracy for Sale has achieved a lot since it launched last summer.

Our stories are regularly picked up by large media outlets, from the Guardian and Politico to the Financial Times and the Mirror. 

But there is so much more to do in the coming weeks and months.

That’s why I am asking you to upgrade to a paid subscription if you can afford to.

For just £5 a month you can help us expose more lies, root out more corruption, and call out more hidden lobbying, dark money and hypocrisy in the run-up to this critical election.

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The Conservatives and Labour are raising record amounts in private money.

As we reported last year, the Tories railroaded through new laws that massively increase how much parties can spend - which is one reason they are refusing to return Frank Hester’s tainted £15 million.

The new election also laws make it easier than ever before to funnel anonymous money into British politics.

Already we can see the impact of this dark money, from the think tanks of Tufton Street to clandestine ‘third party’ campaigns that are already popping up.

Every donation makes a real difference. Democracy for Sale is an independent media outlet. We don’t have big donors or a large organisation behind us. The more people who become paid subscribers, the more work we can do.

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Thank you so much for your support. 

Peter