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Keir Starmer's planned reforms to elections in the UK will still leave gaping loopholes threatening to allow continued foreign interference in British politics, an influential Labour MP has warned.
Cat Smith, who was the party's former Shadow Democracy Minister warned that the proposed measures in the Labour Government's planned Elections and Democracy Bill, were "the bare minimum", "too timid" and represented only a "few welcome crumbs" towards tackling the democratic threats to UK democracy.
The Bill is set to introduce votes at 16 for Westminster elections, a move towards automatic voter registration, and limits to the potential for foreign influence of UK elections through donations.
Asked whether the changes go far enough, when speaking at an event of the UCL's Constitution Unit, Smith said: "Regrettably, a pretty emphatic no."
"The reforms proposed and indeed some of the ones already enacted I think are too timid. they're long overdue measures that the Government has [introduced]."
"I'm certainly not knocking them, but just to be really clear, I don't think they represent brave reform. I think they represent the bare minimum that we need to drag the UK electoral system into the 21st century," she told the panel.
The MP, who is on the left of the party, added: "The true test of a Government's commitment to electoral integrity lies not in the small palatable concessions it makes, but I think its willingness to reinforce the foundational pillars of trust and independence. And this test I'm afraid the Government has yet to pass."
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Under particular fire - from Smith and the independent Electoral Commission itself - is the last Conservative Government's move to introduce a 'strategy and policy statement' to influence the previously-independent elections watchdog.
Labour has opted not to scrap that decision. Cat Smith said: "Creating [the] power for a partisan sitting Government… to issue policy guidance to the neutral body responsible for enforcing electoral law, [is] fundamentally corrosive to public trust. And I think it is the ultimate conflict of interest."
Smith helped lead the opposition to the Conservatives' Elections Bill - now Act - which introduced that change. She said: "I remember saying to Conservative ministers, you will not be in Government forever…You're setting up a system for any sitting Government to influence policy.
"And I say that today to my Labour colleagues who are the ministers responsible for the strategy and policy statement…It might be very nice when you're in Government and you think you can influence it, but it's not fair and it's not right."
Smith warned: "Every Government should remember that you're only in Government today and there's no guarantees for tomorrow…I will not be satisfied until I see the strategy and policy statement taken out of the law but given the Electoral Commission back its independence."
On big donations fuelling British politics, the Labour backbencher said the Government's reforms were "largely ignoring" the "deep structural overhaul of political finance" that was needed. She noted that threats from Elon Musk to donate huge sums to Reform UK, has "completely changed my approach" on the idea of implementing a cap on political donations, something the Government has also appeared to reject.
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Tom Hawthorne, head of policy at the Electoral Com...