Blears questions Tory funding sources
Monday, 4 September 2006 12:00 AM
The Labour party's chairwoman has today demanded the Electoral Commission clear up questions about a "secretive" group that is donating money to the Conservatives.
Hazel Blears has written to the head of the watchdog, Sam Younger, to ask him to investigate the people behind the Midlands Industrial Council (MIC), which has donated almost £1 million to the Tories since April 2003.
One of the council's members is Anthony Bamford, the head of construction giant JCB. Mr Cameron, whose Witney constituency received a £5,500 donation last December, is opening a £25 million JCB factory during his trip to India this week.
The identity of other members remains sketchy, and today Ms Blears raised concerns that the group might include foreigners, who are not allowed to donate to UK political parties.
"The more we learn about Tory funding, the more questions arise.Why are donors, such as Anthony Bamford, donating money through this front group rather than in their own name?" she asked.
However, the Conservatives have rejected any suggestion of impropriety, saying that all donations to constituency associations had been declared to the Electoral Commission, and those to individual MPs had been declared in the register of members' interests.
"Those donations not in the register were donations made to constituency associations. As the Electoral Commission declaration makes clear, the Witney constituency association did receive a donation from the Midlands Industrial Council," they said.
Ms Blears' accusations follow a major row about the sources of funding in both the Labour and Tory parties. Concerns that the process was too secretive have led to new rules being introduced this autumn.
For the first time, parties declared all loans and donations over £5,000 to the Electoral Commission last month. Previously only loans that were not charged interest were made public, but this led to fears that parties were using this rule to hide wealthy backers.
In her letter to Mr Younger, Ms Blears calls for a review of donations given in the name of the MIC to ensure none of them should have been recorded in Sir Anthony's name. Donations have to come from a firm's general fund to be named as from that organisation.
She also noted that there was "some confusion" about how to report donations from the MIC. Nick Herbert MP recorded a donation of £4,000 from "Sir Anthony Bamford (MIC) in his register of interests.
But on the Electoral Commission's register of donations, it is described only as a donation from the MIC, Ms Blears claims. She also says that Tory candidate Damian Collins accepted £14,000 from the MIC but admitted he did not know who the members of the group were.
"In the light of these revelations, I would be grateful if you could indicate what steps you will be taking to ensure that the register of donations accurately reflects the true source of the donations received by the Conservative party," Ms Blears said.
The Electoral Commission confirmed it has received the letter, but a spokeswoman told politics.co.uk that it was too early to say whether it would result in an investigation. However, she stressed that any concerns about party funding were taken seriously.
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