The UK Parliament’s cross-party Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy has renewed its call for a temporary suspension of cryptocurrency political donations until the Electoral Commission develops statutory guidance for parliamentary approval.
UK Parliamentary Committee Reiterates Call for Temporary Ban on Crypto Donations
19 March 2026 - 11:00 CET
The committee said the guidance should be in place before the next general election, which must take place by August 2029 at the latest.
This is not a new recommendation. The committee made the same request in its 23 Feb letter to Steven Reed, the minister responsible for electoral finance.
Foreign interference concerns
The committee’s Political Finance and Foreign Influence report, published on 18 Mar, goes into further detail regarding the vulnerabilities of the current system.
At the centre of its argument is the risk of foreign interference. The report states that democracies across the world are under threat and warns that emerging technologies create new ways to evade due diligence and oversight.
The committee concluded it sees no democratic imperative to permit the use of crypto in political finance until adequate safeguards are in place. It is calling on the government to amend the Representation of the People Bill, which is currently being scrutinized in the committee stage before being returned to the House of Commons at the end of April for further debate. Among other measures, the legislation proposes lowering the voting age to 16.
Conflicting views
Responding to the inquiry, Spotlight on Corruption, a campaign group argued that crypto assets could be used to bypass traditional banking safeguards and anti-money laundering checks. The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition said cryptocurrency donations are uniquely risky, noting that transactions may be linked only to wallet addresses rather than verified real-world identities.
Industry representatives disagreed. Ian Taylor of Crypto UK said blockchain technology is public, transparent and immutable, allowing transactions to be traced.
Mark Garnier MP, the Conservative opposition spokesperson covering crypto assets, told Sandmark that political parties already receive donations in a wide variety of forms ranging from cash to in-kind support such as sponsored travel or fundraising events. He questioned whether Bitcoin is fundamentally different, in this context, from a bar of gold while acknowledging that traceability remains central to the debate.
Rycroft review
The government’s wider review into foreign interference in British elections, led by former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft, is due to report at the end of March 2026.
The review is assessing whether existing safeguards are sufficient to prevent overseas actors from influencing UK politics through opaque funding mechanisms. Officials have indicated its findings could inform future legislation on election finance and political transparency.
