Yes, there is a difference in UK law to giving money to campaigns such as Best for Britain, which are not political parties, and actual political parties, like Reform.
If Soros's donation had been made directly to one side or the other during the 2016 referendum campaign, rules would have been very similar to those that apply to political parties.
But the Best for Britain campaign was post the referendum - basically an attempt to overturn the referendum - so those rules would not have applied.
There would be nothing to stop Musk putting as much money as he likes into a UK campaign, so long as it is not involved in an election campaign. But the tight restrictions would also apply to a third party campaign taking out ads in support of candidate/party during an election/referendum even if it was theoretically independent of the party itself.
As my piece mentions, Musk does have a way around the rules by making donations via a UK company. But it has to be a real operating company, ie not just a company bought off the shelf with the sole purpose of making the donation (although, in practice, and at levels of a million or so, there have been cases which look suspiciously like this in the past).
And he could personally make donations of any size to UK campaigns if they are not a political party or not involved in electioneering, explicitly supporting candidates etc
American readers of the Editors should note how valuable it is to have people like Michael Mosbacher to explain what is going on in other countries.
The opposite is well illustrated in today's NYT coverage of the plans of Canada's PM Trudeau to resign. Not only is that coverage superficial in not explaining why Trudeau's popularity has plummeted, but the NYT has an article interviewing one of its reporters about the coverage and that interview illustrates the cluelessness even more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/06/insider/in-canada-covering-the-trudeau-news-with-an-orchestra.html
And you may not be surprised to hear, since Elon's donation has been aired, there is talk from Labour of tightening the law on donations from UK companies (what is being suggested is that they should in future only make donations up to an amount they could reasonably pay out of their UK profits). But such a change in law would take a while to push through. Would say at least six months, probably longer
Yes, there is a difference in UK law to giving money to campaigns such as Best for Britain, which are not political parties, and actual political parties, like Reform.
If Soros's donation had been made directly to one side or the other during the 2016 referendum campaign, rules would have been very similar to those that apply to political parties.
But the Best for Britain campaign was post the referendum - basically an attempt to overturn the referendum - so those rules would not have applied.
There would be nothing to stop Musk putting as much money as he likes into a UK campaign, so long as it is not involved in an election campaign. But the tight restrictions would also apply to a third party campaign taking out ads in support of candidate/party during an election/referendum even if it was theoretically independent of the party itself.
As my piece mentions, Musk does have a way around the rules by making donations via a UK company. But it has to be a real operating company, ie not just a company bought off the shelf with the sole purpose of making the donation (although, in practice, and at levels of a million or so, there have been cases which look suspiciously like this in the past).
And he could personally make donations of any size to UK campaigns if they are not a political party or not involved in electioneering, explicitly supporting candidates etc
American readers of the Editors should note how valuable it is to have people like Michael Mosbacher to explain what is going on in other countries.
The opposite is well illustrated in today's NYT coverage of the plans of Canada's PM Trudeau to resign. Not only is that coverage superficial in not explaining why Trudeau's popularity has plummeted, but the NYT has an article interviewing one of its reporters about the coverage and that interview illustrates the cluelessness even more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/06/insider/in-canada-covering-the-trudeau-news-with-an-orchestra.html
And you may not be surprised to hear, since Elon's donation has been aired, there is talk from Labour of tightening the law on donations from UK companies (what is being suggested is that they should in future only make donations up to an amount they could reasonably pay out of their UK profits). But such a change in law would take a while to push through. Would say at least six months, probably longer
Elon Musk has noted that George Soros' Open Society Foundations gave £400,000 to a campaign by Best for Britain to reverse Brexit: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/11/george-soros-proud-donating-anti-brexit-campaign
If Soros, who is not a UK citizen, can contribute to UK political causes, can Musk use a similar structure for donations?