A BAN on foreign funding, a £20 million cap on election spending and an end to blind trusts were among the radical proposals unveiled yesterday in the biggest shake-up in the funding of British political parties for more than a century.
In an attempt to restore public confidence, Lord Neill of Bladen, the public standards watchdog, set out 100 recommendations to end the "arms race" among political parties to raise cash.
His main recommendations call for: Full public disclosure of donations to political parties of £5,000 or more nationally, or £1,000 or more locally; A £20 million cap on each party's general election campaign spending; An end to blind trusts; A ban on foreign donations; A ban on anonymous donations to political parties of £50 or more; A new "sleazebuster" to oversee the reforms through an Election Commission.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, setting out his report, Lord Neill said: "Many members of the public believe that the policies of the major political parties have been influenced by large donors, while ignorance about the sources of funding has fostered suspicion.
"We are, therefore, convinced that a fundamentally new framework is needed to provide public confidence for the future, to meet the needs of modern politics and to bring the United Kingdom into line with the best practice in other mature democracies." All the major political parties told the committee that they agreed on the need to publish the names of donors who give £5,000 or more, although the Tories said they did not want to publish the exact amount given by donors. Lord Neill said he could not agree with the Conservatives on this point.