Scrapping election watchdog 'undermines democracy'

Opposition parties have warned that proposals to abolish or significantly revamp the Electoral Commission risks undermining faith in democracy.

The move against the Electoral Commission, as outlined by the Conservatives’ co-chair Amanda Milling, has been dubbed an attempt to prevent the exposure of ‘embarrassing funding connections to Russian oligarchs’.

The Electoral Commission regulates political donations, spending and other areas, with the power to undertake its own investigations and fine parties and officials for breaches of the rules.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life is currently holding a review of electoral regulation, with the Conservatives submitting to the process saying that the commission should not be given new powers of prosecution, as this would bring ‘too many conflicts of interest’.

Writing in the Telegraph, Milling argued that the body should accept more outside scrutiny or be disbanded.

However, any plans have been questioned by Labour and the Lib Dems. Cat Smith, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, called the Conservative proposal ‘a harmful and worrying step for the integrity of our democracy’, saying that, without the commission, ‘no one could prevent the Tories from introducing policies that fundamentally make it harder for people to vote’.

The Lib Dem MP Wendy Chamberlain said that, following ‘the Tories’ embarrassing funding connections to Russian oligarchs’, their Electoral Commission reform plan ‘is a direct attempt to undermine our democracy’.

The Electoral Reform Society has called instead for increased powers for the commission, on the lines of the Information Commissioner’s Office.