A company must not—
make a political donation to a political party or other political organisation, or to an independent election candidate, or
incur any political expenditure,
unless the donation or expenditure is authorised in accordance with the following provisions.
The donation or expenditure must be authorised—
in the case of a company that is not a subsidiary of another company, by a resolution of the members of the company;
in the case of a company that is a subsidiary of another company by—
a resolution of the members of the company, and
a resolution of the members of any relevant holding company.
No resolution is required on the part of a company that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a UK-registered company.
For the purposes of subsection (2)(b)(ii) a "relevant holding company" means a company that, at the time the donation was made or the expenditure was incurred—
was a holding company of the company by which the donation was made or the expenditure was incurred,
was a UK-registered company, and
was not a subsidiary of another UK-registered company.
The resolution or resolutions required by this section—
must comply with section 367 (form of authorising resolution), and
must be passed before the donation is made or the expenditure incurred.
Nothing in this section enables a company to be authorised to do anything that it could not lawfully do apart from this section.