Public funding for political parties – is Labour ready to push this through without cross-party support?

John Denham – who until recently was Ed Miliband’s PPS, and remains close to the Labour leader – has suggested in an interview with the Independent that public funding of political parties should be back on the table. But he also floated the idea that Labour might legislate to change party funding rules without the support of other parties – citing the precedent of the government cracking down on union funding of Labour:

“Labour should campaign very clearly over the next two years on taking the big money out of politics and get a mandate for that, perhaps leaving the question of whether we still need to get consensus open at this stage. Everyone agrees that [consensus] would be better. There needs to be an attempt to establish a public consensus about what is needed.”

“Given the precedent that has been set [on lobbying] and particularly if there are any further moves to legislate on the Labour-union relationship, there would be no obstacle to a Labour government simply legislating after the next election. Absolutely none.”

“If there are any further moves to legislate on the Labour-union relationship, there would be no obstacle to a Labour government simply legislating after the next election. Absolutely none.”

Denham’s views on party funding are significant not just because of his closeness to Miliband (it’s hard to believe that this hasn’t been authorised by the Labour leader), but also because he led Labour’s negotiating team in cross party talks on party funding – until they collapsed acrimoniously in July.

Update: Since we posted this earlier, we’ve spoken to John Denham, who told us:

“Talks did not collapse acrimoniously. We were still exchanging texts on agreed principles when Clegg unilaterally called them off, blaming – dishonestly and I accurately – Labours union links. 

It is true though that the difficulty in reaching detailed agreement was public funding.

My view now – contrary to the Indy headline – is that we need to force through limits on donations first. Then, separately, try to win public CONSENT for some funding. While the difficulties are obvious, this could be completed within the lifetime of a Parliament while not bankrupting parties.”

Separately, we now understand that Denham’s interview with the Independent, and his New Statesman blog, were not in fact cleared with the leader’s office.