Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Political parties in the UK will be banned from accepting do nations in cryptocurrencies, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said, reported AP.
Saying illicit finance poses a “stark” danger to the coun try’s democracy, Starmer told lawmak ers that “we will act decisively to protect our democracy” from outside meddling.
“That will include a moratorium on all po litical donations made through cryptocur rencies,” he said dur ing the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in the House of Commons.
The move could be Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said the Government was trying “to stop the incredible progress of Re form.”
The party holds just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons but consistently leads both Starmer’s gov erning Labour Party and the main op position Conservatives in opinion polls. Tice told broadcaster GB News that “cryptocurrencies are a perfectly legiti mate way of investing, of earning within the law.”
a financial blow to the hard-right party Reform UK. The party led by Nigel Far age is one of the few in Britain to ac cept cryptocurrency donations.
The Government also said it will put an annual cap of 100,000 pounds ($134,000) on donations by British vot ers living abroad. Reform has received 12 million pounds in the past year from Christopher Harborne, a British busi nessman based in Thailand, according to Electoral Commission figures.
Reform lawmakers walked out of the House of Commons chamber after Starmer made the announcement.
Britain has strict limits on how much political parties can spend on elections, but they can accept unlimited dona tions, as long as the donors are U.K. voters or companies registered in Brit ain.
In a recent report, former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft expressed con cern that untraceable digital currency donations could be “used as the vehi cle to channel foreign money into the political system in the U.K.” He advised that crypto donations should be banned temporarily until regulation catches up with the technology.
