Parties plan state funding to stop sleaze slurs

Radical proposals for state funding of political parties to end claims of sleaze over donations by wealthy party supporters could be published before the next election, ministers said yesterday.

Robin Cook, the Leader of the Commons, hinted that state funding could replace huge payments to parties by private donors, insisting that moves to put political funding "beyond allegations of private influence" were long overdue. Mr Cook and Charles Clarke, the Labour Party chairman, led calls for state funding to be expanded, launching what appeared to be a concerted attempt to prepare the ground for reform.

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, also voiced his support for the step yesterday at a private meeting of backbench MPs.

The drive comes after controversies over large donations from the Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone (his £1m was returned), the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and the Daily Express publisher Richard Desmond.

Ministers are considering proposals from Mr Clarke, the Conservative chairman David Davis and Lord Razzall, chairman of the Liberal Democrat campaigns committee. The proposals involve greater state funding for e-democracy, training and helping parties to forge international links.

Opposition parties already benefit from millions of pounds of taxpayers' support for research and policy development but any expansion will be seen as a symbolic step towards wider reform.

Mr Clarke confirmed that increased state funding was among options being "actively considered". He said: "I think it is unlikely that, before the election, we won't have propositions to put, either in the manifesto or before that."

Tony Blair is known to favour wider state funding of politics, but until now ministers have been reluctant to make a public case for reform, fearing a backlash from taxpayers.

In a speech to political journalists, Mr Cook said: "The problem is not whether we can properly defend each single donation. As the Trotskyists used to say, the problem is the system. All political parties must summon up the courage to recognise that the present funding of political parties is damaging the credibility of Parliament.

"The only possible source of funding that is not open to misconstruction is the electorate itself. If the electorate want a healthy Parliament and independent political parties then they must be prepared to fund them from the public purse."

He warned reporters: "Both of us depend for our status on the standing of Parliament and that standing is at its lowest since the introduction of a mass franchise."

Labour backbenchers spent more than an hour discussing funding at yesterday's weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Most MPs backed an expansion of state funding amid fears that Labour was now seen in many voters' eyes as "sleazier" than the previous Tory government.