Origionally Published on Liberal Democrat Voice By Helen Duffett 

Yesterday the Yes to Fairer Votes published its donor list and is calling on all its opponents to do the same.

From the Yes website:

We are campaigning for better politics and as part of that we have decided to declare who is funding our campaign in a spirit of openness and honesty. In doing so, we are giving more details than required by law and we are giving these details far earlier than required.

We are doing this because if people are going to re-connect with politics, then the people seeking their votes must be open and honest. We will update the list again before polling day. The figures disclosed are from the point at which the ‘Yes to fairer votes’ campaign was formed in August 2010, and accounts for every penny in the campaign, and every gift in kind such as the secondment of staff.

£117,798 has been raised in small donations from 2,708 donors, mostly online. You can read the list of the eight donors who have given more than £7,500 plus the organisations who have donated in kind, on the Yes website.

Commenting on the Yes to Fairer Votes’ disclosure of their major sources of funding, Chair of the Liberal Democrat Yes to Fairer Votes campaign and Liberal Democrat Party President, Tim Farron said:

The Yes to Fairer Votes campaign is an example of how politics can and should be transparent on who provides the money.

A diverse group of people support a Yes vote in May and that is welcome news.

The No-to-AV campaign is a different story: increasingly it is becoming clear they’re a campaign full of wealthy individuals who are trying to protect their own interests and keep the disreputable status quo.

The No-campaign doesn’t want to show people what is really going on behind the scenes. I call on them to now come clean on who funds them.