Recommendation 1

The risk of foreign influence in the UK’s political finance system is real. We believe the threat is likely to grow out to the next election, particularly as the value of influencing the UK’s position on international policy increases. The lack of adequate safeguards means that it is not possible to identify or interdict many problematic sources of finance. Moreover, the corrosive public perception that our system is open to foreign influence risks jeopardising trust in outcomes, even if real-world impacts are small. The Government must not waste this opportunity to introduce more robust protections. (Conclusion, Paragraph 28) Who’s in charge?