Campaign Funding

Now that elections in the United Kingdom are modelled more and more on those in the United States who is funding an election is increasingly controversial. So-called "Dark Money" where shadowy groups fund parties or particular candidates are causing concern that the democratic process is being undermined by commercial interests. A recent notorious example was the £100,000 donation from Ferring Pharmaceuticals to the Liberal Democratic Party. The company markets the drug triptorelin which is used as a puberty blocker. The Liberal Democrats pledged the “complete reform of the Gender Recognition Act to remove the requirement for medical reports, scrap the fee and recognise non-binary gender identities”. This connection probably cost leader Jo Swinson her job when failed to get re-elected in the 2019 UK General Election.