Andy Burnham's government is determined to tackle the influence of mega-donors on British politics, communities minister Florence Eshalomi told the Commons, announcing a cross-government task and finish team that would work at pace to find a solution without unintended consequences. She was responding to pressure during debate on the Representation of the People Bill, which caps donations from British citizens living overseas at £100,000 a year and bans cryptocurrency donations but leaves UK-based donors unrestricted. Labour's Stella Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow, tabled an amendment signed by more than 60 MPs proposing an immediate £500,000 limit falling to £100,000 in the second calendar year, exempting trade unions on the grounds that they are already well regulated. She pointed to a surge in seven-figure gifts over the past decade, including the £9m handed to Reform UK last year by the Thailand-based billionaire Christopher Harborne, the largest single donation to a UK party by a living person. Reform's Danny Kruger, the MP for East Wiltshire who quit the Conservatives, called the bill a partisan attempt to kneecap his party and highlighted union money flowing to Labour. Green MP Ellie Chowns wanted a cap as low as £50,000; a Liberal Democrat proposal for a royal commission fell by 427 votes to 85. MPs passed the bill at third reading by 411 votes to 102, sending it to the Lords. Burnham himself registered £345,000 in donations over the past year, including £164,347 from Lord Sainsbury. The exchanges came as the prime minister made his PMQs debut, trading barbs on tax and borrowing with Kemi Badenoch, citing his VAT cut on domestic electricity bills and lower business rates for pubs and music venues, and invoking Liz Truss's budget despite promising an end to point scoring. The reaction in Thursday's newspapers was unforgiving. The Daily Telegraph led on the City warning Burnham, and the Daily Mail carried the line one in the eye for Andy, a play on the Bayeux Tapestry visit he had made with Emmanuel Macron at the British Museum the same day. Several titles focused on his refusal at the despatch box to rule out more borrowing: the i Paper warned he might need to raise 15bn pounds in taxes to cover high borrowing costs, while the Guardian reported that Chancellor John Healey faced sharply reduced spending power after a days-long sell-off of government bonds ahead of the first budget. The Sun reported that Macron would offer just 45 more French police officers to help with small boats. The party funding row also ran through the front pages, with Nigel Farage facing a parliamentary investigation into the 5m pound gift from Christopher Harborne, and Kemi Badenoch trailing a pledge to lift defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 by cutting the welfare bill.