It is hard to think of a single pair of announcements which could have so immediately convulsed the British political system as the apparently casual gifts of Messrs Delo and Harborne to Reform last week. Laws can be changed, stable doors shut, lamentations made, but there aren’t many options to avoid profound damage to our political climate.

The immediate focus has been on the turbo-charging it gives to Reform, the recipient of the dramatic windfalls. Sudden vast wealth isn’t always easy to manage: who controls it, how it is spent, jealousies arising from its allocation; all contain the seeds of potential rows, splits and implosion. But most parties, whatever they may say about how morally cleansing they find their relative poverty, would rather face the challenge of managing excessive funds than have to fight a party which has them. But the wider effect may be the transformation of British politics by big money.

Looking back, it is surprising how cheap our politics has been. In a world where salaries of more than £1 million have become relatively normal (not in my household, sadly) and there are many multi-millionaires around, when it is not rare for houses in parts of England to sell for double-figure millions, political parties have run on quite small budgets. The total expenditure by all parties at the 2024 Westminster election was £69m. Individual candidates’ expenditure is capped for UK elections at around £18,000 for the ‘short’ campaign period, depending on constituency size and type.

It is marginally higher, but differently calculated, for Holyrood elections. This, like much in British constitutional life, is largely........

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