why should political party donors be tax paying residents?

[porphyro]

there is currently a furore over donors to UK parties being offshore residents and having bank accounts abroad, not paying tax here, and sieving their donations through subsidiary companies.
the ethics of party donations aside, why does the fact the donors live abroad become a problem?
surely, in a way, it is better - as if the donor lives, owns companies and pays uk taxes, they may try to influence policy to their advantage. if they are offshore, however, they are going to be less biased and "interested" in Uk developments, other than in relation to, say, exports and foreign trade.

[kempie]

All of the voting electorate try to influence policy to their advantage - that is the whole purpose of voting; you are trying to elect someone who shares your viewpoint.

Those who do not form the electorate "should" have no say on how the country is run. Do you really think if (for example) agents of the Chinese regime gave a billion pounds to a British political party to influence foreign policy that British democracy will have been served?

[buildersmate]

An additional issue is that some of these folks allegedly cream their money from the UK through their business interests, but then take it out through a series of trusts and thus avoid Uk income tax.
So not only do they have no vote because they live abroad, but they might be perceived as seeking to influence policies to enable them to make yet more cream for themselves.