Luke Taylor: "Burnham has shown he is incapable of making the tough decisions needed to empower citizens, take power away from the billionaires, and secure our political system."

Liberal Democrat MP Luke Taylor has accused Andy Burnham of “chickening out” of efforts to get big money out of British politics, after reports that he has backed away from supporting a cap on large political donations.

The Liberal Democrats have long called for donations to political parties to be capped, including in the party’s 2024 General Election manifesto. Lib Dem MPs have also tabled proposals in Parliament requiring an annual cap on donations, with the appropriate level independently reviewed.

The intervention comes after reports that Burnham has stepped back from backing a cap amid concerns about the implications for Labour-affiliated trade unions.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat MP for Sutton and Cheam Luke Taylor said:

“Getting big money out of politics is too urgent to the integrity of our democracy to be hampered by a technical problem with union subs.

“Money donated by working people who pay union subs, with democratic oversight of that process and the right to opt-out of doing so, is not the problem. The problem is Burnham chickening out from the challenge of revamping the system to distinguish between pooled individual donations and the huge, outsized-influence-buying spending power of foreign crypto billionaires.

“It is a totally fixable problem, but once again Burnham has shown he is incapable of making the tough decisions needed to empower citizens, take power away from the billionaires, and secure our political system."