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CTRL ALT DECEIT: Democracy in Danger
Dirty money, shady donations and the Elon Musk effect
Season 1, Ep. 6
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London has long been regarded the capital of dirty money and a new report out this week by Transparency International confirms a similar lack of checks and balances preside over political donations in the UK too. Earlier this month, the UK government announced fresh sanctions to try to tackle dirty money head on and the even more recent whispers that tech billionaire Elon Musk might donate $100 million to Nigel Farage's right-wing Reform party has got members of the Labour party considering capping political donations altogether. To unpack all of this, journalists Nina Dos Santos and Owen Bennett-Jones are joined by three guests who all have direct experience monitoring, policy making and campaigning around the issue. Duncan Hames, the policy director at Transparency International gives us the highlights from their new damning report, Joe Powell MP for Kensington and Bayswater and co-founder of Kensington Against Dirty Money gives us his take on an issue that plagues his constituency and Lord Edward Faulks recounts his time as a minister spent lobbying for better regulation and more transparency.
Ctrl Alt Deceit is brought to you by Democratys, a charity committed to exposing interference in our democratic institutions and inspiring debate and engagement in our democratic process in the UK and beyond.
Producer: Paige Reynolds
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