My friend Jack Straw is looking for good ideas for the reform of parliament (Party leaders agree to talks, 27 May). I have long believed that tax exiles should not be allowed to bankroll UK political parties. Unfortunately, Jack disagrees. For the past two years a tsunami of Ashcroft money - from the Belize-based Tory donor Michael Ashcroft - has engulfed my Pendle constituency. The Lib Dem peer Tony Greaves, a constituent of mine, estimates that the Conservatives are on course to spend £250,000 here. My Commons amendment to the political parties and elections bill was signed by 216 MPs and would have closed the Ashcroft loophole, but it was not taken because of procedural fancy footwork.

I asked Dale Campbell Savours to table my amendments in the Lords and they have now been fully aired and debated. They will be voted on at the Lords report stage in mid-June, before the bill returns to the Commons. I am writing to all Labour peers asking them to support Dale and to defy the Labour whip. I want them to send the amended bill back to MPs where, Jack permitting, we can debate and vote on the matter.
Gordon Prentice MP
Lab, Pendle

(Letter published in the Guardian on 29 May 2009)

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