SIR – The Conservative party has been embarrassed by revelations that its donor, Lord Ashcroft, may previously not have been entirely up-front about his tax status, and so it should be.

But the same is true of the other parties, which all accept huge amounts from individuals and groups. It is naive to believe that some level of influence is not being sought or bought.

A few years ago we had ‘cash-for-honours’ and ‘dodgy-donors’, when the Labour Party narrowly escaped criminal consequences from this questionable cash. Even the Lib-Dems have donor skeletons rattling in their cupboards.

Some may believe, because they’re all at it, then that’s OK, but it’s not.

What we’re talking about is the ability of wealthy people or groups to buy influence in the heart of government. That devalues all the votes of we individual voters, simply because we can never wield that cash-register route to power.

It is time that political funding rules were rebuilt from the ground up. I don’t pretend to have the answer, but we need to ask the question.

If we are a genuine democracy, how come anyone can buy more influence than my single vote?

Graham Hoyle, Kirkbourne Grove, Baildon, Shipley