Cash for Access

David Cameron offering up Number 10 diner table for grubby money

With all the furore over the Cameron #cashforaccess scandal and the unmitigated disaster of the Conservative budget last week it is perhaps worth commenting upon that Labour will enter the next round of local elections in the strongest position for a decade.

The double whammy; standing up for an elite in the budget, and the fact that this same elite has access acccess to the upper echelons on Number 10, because of sums of money the average person spends over 20 years on a mortgage, is a massive and corrosive hit on the Tory party and its aspirations to be broadly representative. The same problem Tim Montgomerie was waxing on about last week; has just got a whole lot worse.

The Sunday Times video recordings of both Mr Cruddas and Ms Southern are extremely damaging and raise serious legal questions and perhaps rule breaking at the heart of the Tory party machine.

In one of these clips, Ms Southern says that she had spoken to the Conservative Party about the situation and that they said that money would have to come via “an individual, or individuals who are on the electoral roll”. Pressed by the reporters as to whether the Conservative Party would need to clarify this situation, Ms Southern said, “The Party, the Party won’t ask.”

The law is clear on the permissibility of donations to political parties. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) stipulates that donations are only permissible if they come from individuals registered on the UK electoral roll, or from companies registered in the UK.

(2) For the purposes of this Part the following are permissible donors—
(a) an individual registered in an electoral register;
(b) a company—
(i) registered under the Companies Act 1985 or the 1985 c. 6.Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, and S.I. 1986/1032
(ii) incorporated within the United Kingdom or another (N.I. 6).member State, which carries on business in the United Kingdom;
Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (page 42-43)

PPERA also stipulates that where a donation is received by way of another person, the party must be given details in respect of the original donor.

It does raise serious questions as to how the Conservative Party is soliciting donations,

• In soliciting donations which they believed to come from an overseas source, were Mr Cruddas and/or Ms Southern, or others committing a criminal offence?
• Is the reported method of soliciting donations from an overseas source as outlined by Mr Cruddas/Ms Southern standard practice within the Conservative Party?
• Why did Mr Cruddas, and Ms Southern, evidently believe that this practice was legitimate?
• Who at the Conservative Party advised Southern how the undercover reporters could get around electoral law?
• Do other donations to the Conservative Party ultimately come from overseas?
• It would also be helpful to know whether your Commission has been aware of the procedures which the Conservative Party have in place for ensuring full disclosure; and what if any precautions have they taken to ensure that sufficient disclosure is made to ensure that the donor is not acting for a third party.

Trade Union members and funding comes from millions of middle income and low wage British workers. The video appears and suggests that Tory funding comes from an elite tiny number of individuals via non-UK taxed companies.