Anni has worked across commercial, political and not for profit sectors in her 25 years as a public relations consultant. Her client list has included such diverse organisations as a radiator manufacturer, local council, science start-ups and even a synchronised swimming team.
Most recently she has been focused on the campaigning sector. As Campaign Manager for the Equal Civil Partnerships Campaign she is part of the team who succeeded in introducing mixed-sex civil partnerships in England and Wales at the end of 2019.
The Rycroft Report: Building protective walls around UK democracy
The Rycroft Review: Report of the independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics was published 25 March 2026. Here, we collate the responses from the Resilient Democracy Network.
Radix Big Tent
We – and the Resilient Democracy Network – very much welcome the recommendations in the Rycroft Report on Countering Foreign Financial Influence and Interference in UK Politics and the urgency with which the Government has received it.
We also urge the Government to use this as a foundation to continue to build protective walls around the integrity of UK elections, including a cap on all political donations – not only those from registered UK voters living overseas; a lower cap for all donations than that currently proposed for overseas donors and ensuring the Rycroft proposals around effective enforcement of donation rules are integrated into the Representation of the People Bill.
A moratorium on crypto currency, announced to take place retrospectively from today, and enhanced know your donor checks, together with the corporate donation tests based on profits rather than revenue, are vital building blocks in constructing a protective wall around the integrity of UK elections, making it harder for the original source of donations to remain hidden, and aiding in the fight against foreign interference and ‘dirty money’ infecting our political system.
We are also particularly delighted that the report recommends an annual cap on political donations from UK registered voters living abroad, again to take place retrospectively from today, recognising the risk of foreign interference seeping into UK politics through this route as well as a public perception that people unaffected by UK tax and spend policies should not have the right to influence policy.
However, the walls of our democracy can still be breached and we and the Resilient Democracy network are continuing to campaign vigorously for a cap on all political donations. We all also note that the cap announced by Minister Steve Reed is £100,000, which is double that proposed by the Resilient Democracy, three times that of the average UK salary and at a level that still looks like the super rich can buy more than their share of political influence.
As we stated in our 'Sheriff of Wild Westminster' article, the Bill that the Rycroft report will amend needed beefing up in order to corral some of the wilder banditry occurring across the UK political plain. We have two of those actions now in place - we just need a donation cap to complete the three amigos.
Unlock Democracy
Commenting on the Rycroft Review, Tom Brake, Chief Executive of Unlock Democracy, said:
“Cryptocurrency donations pose a real and present threat to the integrity of UK democracy. They are hard to trace and easy to move across borders, creating clear risks of dirty and foreign money entering politics. The Rycroft review is right to recommend a moratorium on crypto donations, and it should only be lifted once we can be sure it is safe to do so.
“We welcome the recommendation to base company donation limits on post-tax profits rather than revenue, and that no corporate donor can give more than their post-tax profits, averaged over the previous two years, in any given year. We also note the recommended cap on donations from overseas voters. But the government could and should go further still.
“Big money distorts politics regardless of its origin. A fixed cap is needed across the board to prevent large donations, whether from overseas voters or domestic sources, from buying influence.”
Fair Vote
The Rycroft Review is a clear warning: The UK’s political system remains vulnerable to financial influence — including from abroad — and current rules are not sufficient to address that risk. It does not claim the system is broken beyond repair. But it does make clear that without action, the risks will grow. Crucially, the review also confirms something equally important: We already know what needs to be done. The Representation of the People Bill is now the moment to act.
The Rycroft review is a clear and welcome acknowledgement that the UK’s political finance system has fallen woefully behind the threats it now faces. Rycroft’s recommendations – including forcing transparency behind company donations, strengthening the powers of the Electoral Commission, tightening corporate donation rules, and banning cryptocurrency donations – reflect measures our coalition has long called for. In an era of growing foreign interference and opaque funding, these are necessary steps to close some of the most obvious vulnerabilities in our system.
It’s for that reason our coalition called for a ban on cryptocurrency donations to political parties in December and has long advocated for stronger enforcement powers and resources to ensure our existing laws work as they should. This review is therefore a highly welcome step in reckoning with our broken system. While these measures will go some way in directly addressing many of the most obvious and exploitable gaps, there remain central weaknesses at the heart of our system. The growing dominance of big money in politics means the risks identified in this review will persist.
The coalition is clear: you cannot fully protect elections from foreign or undue influence while allowing unlimited donations. So long as parties rely on a small number of wealthy donors, the risks this review identifies will persist, no matter how many individual rules of our system are tweaked. If the Government is serious about safeguarding democratic integrity, it must build on this review by going further in the Representation of the People Bill: capping donations to political parties, limiting spending on elections, and commencing new, more stringent donor declarations.
Trust in politics depends on knowing money doesn’t buy influence. People expect a system that works for everyone and the Representation of the People Bill is the chance to fix that properly, not in pieces.The task now is to finish the job.
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