‘Step backwards’: Union leader warns Burnham against political donations cap – POLITICO

LONDON — Britain’s most powerful union leader has warned Prime Minister Andy Burnham against capping individual donations to political parties in the U.K.

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, told POLITICO he believes a cap could be a “step backwards” as any new law would likely capture donations from trade unions, not just those from individual tycoons and firms based in Britain.

“We all want to see our politics cleaned up, but I don’t want to see the voices of ordinary working people excluded from politics because we have a badly designed law,” he said in an interview ahead of the TUC’s annual meeting of 47 member unions on Sunday. “Until somebody can give me an assurance that you can design a law that doesn’t silence those voices, then I’m going to be skeptical about it.”