The first and most obvious problem is that whatever the high-minded and long-standing arguments in some quarters for capping donations, doing so now, and explicitly in response to this story, looks like the established parties rigging the game against Nigel Farage – exactly the narrative he thrives off.
The UK does not have state funding for political parties per se. Those that get elected to Parliament receive Short Money (if not in government), but this is restricted to supporting parliamentary activities and cannot be spent on campaigning. (An exception is, disgracefully, made for Sinn Féin: because it doesn’t have parliamentary activity, by dint of not taking its seats, it and it alone receives “Representative Money”, which can be spent more liberally.)
In an ideal world, we might be able to sustain national parties on small donations from enthused and engaged citizens. In reality, a simple ban on big donations would cause British politics to collapse.
It is difficult to imagine that going well. What government is going to ask voters, struggling with a sky-high cost of living and record taxation, to stump up for politicians? Even if they did, the outrage whenever the independent body suggests increases to MPs’ expenses suggests funding would struggle to keep pace with inflation.
Much of this democratic infrastructure has already withered. The Conservative Party used to employ hundreds of full-time agents and even operate Swinton College, an education and training centre. Today, what is left of the central machine runs on a feast and famine cycle, the machinery of democratic campaigning blooming around elections like flowers after a desert rain.
This is only getting worse with Labour’s plans to overhaul local government through “unitarisation”, i.e. replacing multiple layers of local government (town councils, district/borough councils, and country councils) with a single body.
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Read MoreMy hometown of Berkhamsted currently has 15 town councillors, six borough councillors, and a county councillor. If Hertfordshire is unitarised, as proposed by a white paper earlier this month, all but one of those positions will cease to exist in any form. I fear that would do huge damage to the basic machinery of local politics.
Britain already takes a parsimonious approach to politics, with strict limits on what can be spent during election periods (when voters are paying attention). We arguably pay a price for it, too: American elections may be absurdly expensive, but they also feature lots of small donations and genuine public rallies. Spending on engagement increases engagement.
Henry Hill is the deputy editor of ConservativeHome, a blog that is independent of the Conservative Party
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