Sir Christopher Kelly's methodology and objectives have much in common with those of Sir Hayden. In order to remove the influence of "big money" in British politics, he argues, there must be a cap on donations to parties at the level recommended by the Liberal Democrats — £10,000 per donor per annum. Kelly fails to show how this cap would achieve the objective. Wealthy donors would simply redirect their political gifts to think-tanks and sundry bodies which promote the objectives of a political party but are legally independent from it.

One might have expected the Committee on Standards to investigate such party-related payments. It repeatedly declined to do this. The effect is to give a skewed view of political funding in Britain today. Whereas the Liberal Democrats are considerably poorer as a political party than their main rivals, they benefit from some of the largest party-related payments, which are not recorded in their accounts. Neither Conservatives nor Labour have anything to rival the pro-Lib Dem Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd. At the end of 2009 its endowment was £31.7 million. The £15 million donated by Lord Sainsbury to the Institute for Government before the general election of 2010 was (as described in Standpoint last April) devoted to a politicised cause: the promotion of a coalitionist, continental European model of government in which Liberal Democrats would play a pivotal role. With its close links to the Cabinet Secretary and senior civil service, the Institute for Government also promoted support within Whitehall for the continental European system. The Electoral Reform Society represents another core Lib Dem cause. The ERS and its subsidiaries had reserves at the end of 2009 of £13.7 million. With some £2 million in leftover funds from the Communist Party of Great Britain, Unlock Democracy provides further backing for pro-Lib Dem constitutional reforms.

The Kelly Committee's recommendation of some £20 million a year in public funding for the political parties — a scheme of particular benefit to the Liberal Democrats — comes in the wake of the scandals concerning MPs' expense claims. Those revelations concentrated on the use by MPs and peers of public funds for their personal and family benefit. At least as important are practices prevalent among members of the House of Commons, the devolved legislatures, MEPs and councillors involving the use of money received in public funds for party political purposes, funds designated to allow elected officials to carry out their public duties. Here, too, the committee failed to undertake the necessary research.