Two days ago The Sunday Telegraph revealed the PM had pushed back at Labour over the issue of Russian money in the UK, specifically the political system. Replying on the PM’s behalf to a letter sent by Starmer, Lord True, Lord True accused Starmer of trying to “open gates to a flood” of party donations from foreign citizens, including Russians living in Britain. Guido’s now read the letter in full – it’s quite a good read…
“I note that rather than supporting British expats’ rights to vote, the Labour Party want to give full voting rights to all foreigners who live in Britain. The Labour Government in Wales has already done this in relation to the franchise for local and devolved elections. The Scottish Government has done the same in Scotland.
This has given foreign Russian citizens resident in Wales and Scotland the right to make unlimited donations to the Labour Party and the SNP.
Labour’s Shadow Minister in the Lords has now tabled an amendment to Election Bills that would grant all foreign nationals with leave to enter or remain the right to vote in all local and Parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom – and therefore donate. It is the Labour Party which would open the gates to a flood of foreign citizen money into British politics.
The Labour Party would treat long-standing British citizens (living overseas) worse than those who have no British citizenship.”
On the issue of preventing foreign interference, Lord True slams Labour’s hypocrisy again:
“We all need to be alert to the risks. Labour’s largest corporate donor in recent years was from a Chinese Communist spy, giving almost £700,000 to Labour regulated donees and local Labour parties. During the 2019 general election, the Labour Party distributed propaganda from a disinformation campaign by hostile Russian actors.”
Read the letter in full below:
