A CAP on donations to political parties appeared to edge closer yesterday as the minister responsible for electoral law admitted that voters wanted limits on the influence of millionaire donors.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, told a committee of MPs that the public feared the “capture” of political parties by a small number of very wealthy donors.

He told the MPs: “The cap on donations is the most obvious way of dealing with the issue of a few people getting undue influence on a party and that is one of the important issues to be looked at.”

David Cameron has already proposed on behalf of the Conservative Party a limit on individual, corporate or trade union donations of £50,000 a year. Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, used his first formal meeting with Tony Blair this week to press for a similar limit, increasing pressure for a move.

Lord Falconer, giving evidence to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, was careful to avoid any reference to a cap on union donations, saying that trade unions had a special position. The Lord Chancellor said that the Labour Party would make a submission within a month to the independent inquiry into political funding led by Sir Hayden Phillips, the former Permanent Secretary of his department, and he would not pre-empt its findings.

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