Greensill 2.0: Is the next lobbying scandal brewing in the House of Lords?Greensill 2.0: Is the next lobbying scandal brewing in the House of Lords?Posted 16 Apr 2021
Scotland’s loophole ridden lobbying laws are in need of an urgent upgradeWealth and power can get people access and influence that normal citizens can only imagine. It is, after all, why lobbying is a multi-million pound industry. That's why transparency is so vital.Posted 17 Aug 2020
Russia report highlights risk of foreign interference in House of Lords"It is notable that a number of Members of the House of Lords have business interests linked to Russia."Posted 22 Jul 2020
Dark ads and dodgy donors: How the Queen’s Speech missed a chance to protect our democracyThere was a conspicuous silence in the Queen’s Speech on Monday. Despite announcing a bill to protect ‘electoral integrity’ (by making it harder for us all to vote), there was inaction on updating Britain’s outdated...Posted 18 Oct 2019
A new all-party group has been launched to update Britain’s ‘wild west’ election campaign rulesAs we get closer to the European elections, here’s a worrying fact: our elections are currently wide open to foreign interference and dodgy campaigning. Election rules in the UK haven’t been updated since the year...Posted 15 May 2019
ERS in the Press – March 2019Brexit might be dominating the news, but the rolling constitutional crisis that we call Westminster is still up to its usual tricks. We’ve spent the last month getting press attention for some of our biggest...Posted 29 Mar 2019
Money could flood into British politics under planned lawThe Overseas Electors Bill, which returned to the Commons last week, has a sound purpose – to end the current limit on how long Britons can live abroad and still be able to vote. But,...Posted 25 Mar 2019
Tax ‘exiles’ are funnelling money into our political parties. It’s time to close the loopholeHere’s a fairly basic democratic principle: those who pour money into our political parties in exchange for influence should – at the very least –be based here at home. Sadly, even that low bar is...Posted 07 Mar 2019
The threat of dark money goes beyond BrexitTwo and a half years on from the EU referendum, the result is still being discussed and debated. Arguably more important though is another story: whether the rules of the game are bust. The weekend...Posted 07 Nov 2018
Why we can’t leave our democracy at the whim of tech giants like FacebookAnother vote is never far away. But even outside of election time, campaigning rumbles on. Each day, a lot of cash is spent influencing political debate. These days though, that’s not just people delivering leaflets...Posted 25 Oct 2018