Politics shouldn't be for sale.
Every registered voter gets a £5 voucher each year to give to the parties they choose. In return, parties and politicians stop taking money from anyone else. One voter, one fiver. No exceptions.
one
fiver
We'd never let a police officer take a "donation".
Politicians write the laws the police enforce. Yet a politician can accept money, hospitality, gifts and paid second jobs from people who want something from those laws. If it's corruption at the station, it should be corruption at Westminster, Holyrood, the Senedd and Stormont too.
A business pays a police officer £50,000
Nobody needs persuading. It's a bribe, whatever it's called.
A business gives a party £50,000
The party then writes rules that affect that business. Declaring it doesn't change who has the ear of power.
Four rules
Every voter gets a voucher
Each person on the electoral register receives a £5 democracy voucher once a year. They can give all of it, some of it, or none of it, split across any registered UK parties.
Voucher money is the only money
No party or politician may accept donations, loans, gifts or benefits in kind from any other source. No company cheques, no union cheques, no millionaires, no free flights.
No second jobs
Elected representatives work for their voters only. The one exception is the minimum work needed to keep a professional registration, such as a doctor's or nurse's hours.
No shares, no investment property
On taking office, shareholdings and investment properties are sold. A representative should never vote on something they personally profit from.
Make them earn it
Parties will get less money. Good. Now they'll have to ask you for it.
About 47.5 million people are registered to vote. Vouchers would be every party's only income, so they'd fight for them the way they fight for votes. At a general election, when parties throw everything at it, around 6 in 10 people turn out. If 4 in 10 give their fiver, parties get about the same money as today. Every pound of it has to be won from a voter, one at a time.
Starts at 40%, below the roughly 60% turnout at the 2024 general election. Seattle's local voucher scheme, where nobody's income depended on it, reached 7.6% of adults. In 2024, a general election year, UK parties reported accepting £97.8m in donations and public funds. Electorate is an estimate from ONS December 2023 counts plus the reported 1.9% rise to December 2025. The 2024 figure covers only donations above the reporting threshold (£11,180), so the true total is somewhat higher.
Three ways to give
Online
Enter the code from your poll card and your postcode, then give some or all of your £5. Come back and give the rest whenever you like.
App
Scan the QR code on your poll card. Give a bit now and more later, any time before the year closes on 31 March.
Post Office
Fill in a paper form at any Post Office counter. Nobody is left out for not being online.
Try giving your voucher
This is how the online service could work. Demo only · no money moves, nothing is sent
- 1 · Your voucher
- 2 · Choose parties
- 3 · Check
- 4 · Done
You don't have to give it all at once. Come back and give your remaining balance whenever you like, until 31 March. Anything left then goes back to the Exchequer.
Check your choices
Your name is never shared with parties. Parties see only totals by area.
Thank you.
Fair questions
Who pays for the vouchers?
The Treasury, from general taxation. The most it could ever cost is about £237 million a year, if every voter gave their full £5. At 40% uptake it's about £95 million, around £1.40 per person in the UK. Unused vouchers cost nothing.
Won't parties be short of money?
Only if they don't earn it. If 4 in 10 voters give their fiver, parties get about what they took in 2024. A party that ignores voters will get less, and a party that wins them over will get more. That's the point.
Why £5?
At realistic uptake, a fiver roughly matches what parties raise today, so politics doesn't get more expensive for taxpayers. It's small enough that no single voter matters more than another. What matters is that it's the same for everyone.
Doesn't scarce money help sitting MPs?
It could, because MPs already have publicly funded staff, offices and plenty of media coverage, while challengers start with nothing. So the proposal comes with two safeguards: a strict ban on using office budgets or staff for campaigning, and equal free mailings and broadcast time for every candidate, building on the free election mailing candidates already get.
What about union funding?
Union members would each get their own voucher, like everyone else, and could give it to whichever party they like. Unions would remain free to campaign on issues; they just couldn't fund parties directly.
Doesn't selling shares and property put people off standing?
It's a real cost, and the rule would need detail. The proposal applies to investments. A family home would not count, and pensions or blind trusts could be allowed so candidates don't lose their savings.
Could a new party ever get started?
Yes. Any registered party can receive vouchers from day one. A new party with 100,000 supporters giving £5 each would have £500,000, without needing a single wealthy backer.
What stops fraud?
Each code is tied to one entry on the electoral register and checked against a postcode, the way postal votes are checked. Codes can be used only once per year and are cancelled if a voter is removed from the register.
Add your name
We'll ask candidates before the next election whether they support The Clean Fiver, and publish their answers.