Chris Rennard has been a member of the Liberal Democrat party for more than 40 years and was awarded a peerage in 1999. Chris Rennard has written his account of becoming involved with the Liberal Democrats with his book, “Winning Here”.
Lord Rennard in Parliament
Political Parties Funding
Oral questions: Electoral Commission powers to prevent political parties, and associated promotional activities, from receiving funding from outside of the UKLord Blunkett (Labour)
Does the Minister accept that there can be problems with very large donations to political parties, whether they may originate from abroad or be clearly from within the UK, and that the only way to prevent undue influence on political parties is to ban company donations and have a sensible cap on the size of all other donations? Does she then agree that political parties would still be able to campaign effectively if existing public funding was redistributed—for example, from the £100 million spent by the Government in the last two general elections on distributing candidates’ election addresses—and given to the parties to spend as they saw fit?
Lord Rennard in the House of Lords addresses political party funding, highlighting concerns over large donations and their potential undue influence.
Obesity
Does the Minister agree that one of the major problems with tackling obesity in the UK is that we are second only to the United States in our consumption of ultra-processed foods? While the steps she announced are welcome, do we not need further measures, such as providing free, healthy, nutritious school meals as an alternative to the unhealthy fast food shops close to many schools?
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