Why are the tories allowed to accept donations?

[hdjdjehhdhdvsv]

AKA Bribes

I was watching a documentary about women fleeing domestic violence and when one of the women brought a box of chocolates and a card to say thank you to the people at the council (housing department) when she was rehoused away from her ex, she was told they weren't allowed to accept gifts. presumably so people couldn't bribe their way into a council house. So the poor woman walked out with her box of chocolates and the hard working people weren't allowed the little perk.

Why oh why are MPs allowed to be wined and dined by big companies? why are they allowed to accept 'donations' what are they donating to? Is the tory party a charity? where does the money go? I just don't understand it at all can someone shed some light on why normal people working in council housing aren't allowed to accept a box of chocolates as a thank you (so this was AFTER the woman was rehoused, wouldn't Have affected the house she got) but the people who decide laws and tax and where public money goes are allowed to accept 'donations'? how can that be?

People are easily corruptible, why isn't it allowed?

ALSO I think 80k is mega money, more than enough to live on (maybe London is different?)
But why are they allowed second jobs too? surely you don't want your MPs thinking about anything other than their very important job?

Why can't they be held up to their manifestos aswell? They should have a plan in place (first year xyz 2nd year zyx etc etc) they can't be allowed to just say we will do taxes and not do taxes. or say we will do hospitals and then not do hospitals. We will do schools and not do schools.

this is why I would never be able to go into politics, I don't get the 'grey areas' aka corruption.

Everything you have said applies to all political parties.

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/contents2122.htm

You might find this interesting

All political parties accept donations - where have you been?

The Lib Dems, who are very pro medicalised child gender transition, took £1m from the pharmaceutical company that makes puberty blockers.

The Labour Party is heavily funded by trade union donations

They're all allowed to accept donations. Tory donors just tend to be wealthy with very lucrative business interests; over 60% of all donations for the 2019 election went into Tory coffers. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/general-election-2019-which-party-received-the-most-donations/; the graph shows the Tories got almost 4 times as many donations as Labour, and 5 times as many donations as the Brexit Party, where "individual" donations amounted to over 4 million. Much of this came from one individual, www.politicshome.com/news/article/former-tory-donor-gave-brexit-party-3m-donation-new-figures-reveal - there is a brief bio of the man on Wikipedia, although as ever with Wikipedia (and the rest of the Internet and media, come to that, some more than others), sources and data would need to be verified independently- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Harborne

(Labour got just over 5 million in donations.)

I'm not sure about whether these can be classed as tax deductibles or not, opinions out there vary and I couldn't find the answer quickly on the HMRC website.

The Labour party has lost a lot of union donations under Starmer www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-unite-union-donations-starmer-sharon-graham-b2011988.html; and there are other questions around activity from some organisations; www.businessinsider.com/keir-starmer-linked-labour-group-fined-14k-failure-declare-donations-2021-9?r=US&IR=T

Should ask why you have to donate to the Labour Party if you are in a union.

Maybe for the same reason the Labour Party has accepted millions in donations from the Chinese Communist Party. Who knows?

@Starlitexpress

Should ask why you have to donate to the Labour Party if you are in a union.

You don't have to, you can opt out of the "political levy" as it's called

If only one party is allowed to accept donations then that's wrong. However that seems unlikely to be the case.

@steff13

If only one party is allowed to accept donations then that's wrong. However that seems unlikely to be the case.

It most definitely isn't the case

@Starlitexpress

Should ask why you have to donate to the Labour Party if you are in a union.

Not true for many years.

@Starlitexpress

Should ask why you have to donate to the Labour Party if you are in a union.

You don't.

@Justcallmebebes

Maybe for the same reason the Labour Party has accepted millions in donations from the Chinese Communist Party. Who knows?

I call this out - it's utter bullshit.

@daimbarsatemydogsbones

Not millions, but nearly £700,000 from a suspected Chinese spy.

Why are the Labour party allowed to accept donations?

Not millions, but nearly £700,000 from a suspected Chinese spy.

Much, much more than this

Note that on the original post council staff are allowed to accept gifts. But every council (and other government departments etc) will have a policy on gifts & hospitality

If accepted any gift or hospitality is to be recorded in a hospitality book (note that political parties and politicians etc must record and declare all gifts, hospitality, donations and any ‘interests’)
Offers should also be recorded even if not accepted

Note that in the randomly selected hospitality policy from Google below council staff are permitted to accept certain gifts - including chocolate

It is very common though to just refuse, even when policy permits - either to avoid the need to record and account for it, or due to not knowing / understanding the policy

www.wakefield.gov.uk/Documents/access-to-information/senior-executive-remuneration/gifts-hospitality-guidance.pdf

Note that as an MoD Civil Servant I have had gifts from contractors, and they were recorded and reported accordingly - this brings a new problem - that someone has to follow up the reporting and pass it up the chain. So someone in Whitehall knows that I accepted a branded calendar and used it in the office

@Justcallmebebes

Not millions, but nearly £700,000 from a suspected Chinese spy.

Much, much more than this

Can we have some evidence? A link perhaps?

Not just the Tories but you’re right. Nowhere else in public or private sector would such blatant bribes be allowed, yet it’s encouraged by the corrupt politicians making the rules the rest of us follow.

Barry Gardiner Labour MP accepted donations over 6 years from a Chinese woman that amounted to £500,000. She was known to MI5. It was widely reported by the media in January.

@lancashirelady

Barry Gardiner Labour MP accepted donations over 6 years from a Chinese woman that amounted to £500,000. She was known to MI5. It was widely reported by the media in January.

She was the mother of a member of his staff, and a lawyer

Known to MI5 but they don’t routinely tell people who they are paying attention to

There was no ‘wrong doing’ on his behalf as donations were accepted and declared
Once identified it ended up with her son losing his job and no corruption etc on his side

The Chinese lawyer was also a recipient of awards from the conservative government

It highlights that foreign governments aim to influence politics in other countries

@Justcallmebebes

Not millions, but nearly £700,000 from a suspected Chinese spy.

Much, much more than this

No details posted because it's not true - it's just bollocks.

The alternative to donations to run parties is state funding for all political parties - not sure I’d want my taxes going to Any of them tbh instead of to the nhs or social care

@Charlieandlola

The alternative to donations to run parties is state funding for all political parties - not sure I’d want my taxes going to Any of them tbh instead of to the nhs or social care

That's not the only alternative - limits could be applied, and members only funding etc.

@comealongponds

Not just the Tories but you’re right. Nowhere else in public or private sector would such blatant bribes be allowed, yet it’s encouraged by the corrupt politicians making the rules the rest of us follow.

Well yes not just the tories but the tories are in and they are the ones making the decisions to fuck us over