Stella Creasy

It was 11 days after the 7th of October.

So I got a phone call from Stella Creasy, who's an MP in Walthamstow, who I know a bit from other work.

And she said, I've got a constituent whose elderly parents have been taken hostage in Gaza.

That's Sharon...

We should all be taking this deadly seriously.

Uh, the irony of Stella Creasy's view on free speech.

For Creasy, free speech means state-regulated speech.

Only people with approved views can speak, and anyone who steps out of line must be silenced and, if necessary, punished.

I'm sorry.

In Creasy's world, where we, quote, "must recognize various identities," you either self-censor or you keep schtum or face changes to the law designed to shut you up.

This week, Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walt- Walthamstow, waded into the free speech debate at a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, bringing her familiar brand of student politics with her.

Creasy told the audience that free speech must be curtailed when it, quote, "stops somebody else's view from being heard." D- 1984 Orwellian doublespeak.

And there's been some really great advocates of trying to make it easier for parents in Parliament.

Uh, Stella Creasy did an amazing piece of work, and I'm, uh, I, I know Stella's family, uh, very well.

And, um, that's phenomenal 'cause it, we need to make it easier for parents.

I guess the an- antiquity...

In fact, experts say that it will divert focus and resources to a system that is unfair, unsafe and unworkable.

Meanwhile, Labour MP for Wollastow, Stella Creasy, who abstained on the vote, hit out at the UK government's proposal to review refugees' status every 30 months if they are in the UK on a new core protection route, which would be established by the Bill.

She said this bill introduces a Diet Coke version of the refugee status, the core protection visa which will require refugees to be retested every 2.5 years, potentially for 20 years.

Think of the cost.

It really is at the forefront of everything.

And young people, I'm sick of hearing politicians say that they're so inspired by young people.

Stop being inspired by them and empower them, give them the confidence and the resources and the skills to be able to hold the levers of power themselves.

Now, that doesn't mean every young person needs to be a politician, although if you want to, great.

It also feels far too often that the change that's needed is far too slow and doesn't happen.

But I also think if it didn't exist, you would need to create it.

You need a forum where you get the leaders or senior politicians, preferably the leaders with decision makers, from every single country and get them together to make change.

And we saw the glimpse of that with the Paris Agreement, where I really felt this might be a turning point.

This week, after a pair of record-breaking donations to Reform UK, we'll look at the role of big money in politics, the influence it can bring, why campaigners want to see caps on the amount people can give to parties, and where the pushback against these changes is coming from.

So, to discuss whether the two £36 million donations from crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harbourn to Nigel Farage's party will lead to changes in the way our politics is funded, I'm delighted to be joined by the Labour MP, Stella Creasy, who is leading the charge to change the law, as well as Olly Buston, director of the campaign group Clean Up Westminster, alongside award-winning journalist Peter Gagan, founder and editor of the Democracy for Sale website.

Peter, starting with you then, can you just put these two big donations to reform kind of into the wider context of money that is given to political parties in recent years? They're

record donations in the history of British politics.

That isn't going to happen if it's a billionaire's playground.

That's all got time for this week, but you can read all the latest on the big stories from Westminster at politicshome.com and keep her up to date by subscribing to our free seven day rate newsletters, which you can sign up to or hit the link on the homepage or in the show notes for this episode.

Thanks again to our brilliant guests, Stella Creasy, Olly Buston and Peter Gagan.

And thanks you all for listening.

But Labour is not proposing to put a cap on donations.

Uh, Stella Creasy, the Labour MP, was talking about it a few months ago.

Andy Burnham, Labour leader, since you forgot, and indeed our, our own dear Prime Minister said he supported a donations cap, but he's backtracked on that.

Why? Well, partly it's the influence of people like Lord Ali.

Clive Betts.

Chris Bryant, Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, Dan Carden, Al Khans, Stella Creasy, another surprise, I think, Angela Eagle, a surprise, Cliff Efford, Louise Haig, a member of the government, I'd be very surprised if she doesn't personally support assisted dying, John Healy and Lisa Nandy, again, I make the same comment in relation to her, and Emily Thornberry.

Now, I had rather dismissed the possibility when we discussed this before that you were putting forward that Andy Burnham's intervention saying that he thought we should wait till we'd sorted out palliative care before we move forward with this.

I would rather dismiss the idea that would have much effect.

... and rightly so on women's rights and the plights of women and the danger that women face.

And Stella Creasy and others on an annual basis will stand in the House of Commons and reel off names of women that have lost their lives at the hands of abuse, and yet when concerned women are writing to the very same person, it's a bit like writing to Jess Phillips, you wouldn't get a response on this.

Oh, yeah.

You know, and Jess would talk about, "No, I'm the side of them.

This is particularly relevant today after the news of these donations because as we were mentioning earlier in this episode, one of the things that several people in the Labor Party have been trying to do is to beef up the Representation of the People's Bill so that it would cap not just donations from Brits based abroad, but every donation, which would mean it doesn't mean where, it doesn't matter where you're living.

If you're Ben Dilo, if you're Christopher Harborne, if you're anybody, you would not be able to donate more than, well, under Stella Creasy's proposal, £100,000-

Yep

...

But as we revealed a few weeks ago, he changed his mind.

Yeah.

And so we saw the bill going through the Commons without Stella Creasy's amendment getting support from the government.

Uh, it's in the Lords today, as we've, as, as we said, and there are other opportunities, of course, to amend the legislation going forward.