Witney Conservatives took £7.4K illegal donations

Go to: Forums > News & Current Affairs: Political

There are 16 postings to this topic on our Member website and this page runs 7 days behind our Member website. For the full topic click to sign up to OUTeverywhere.

A topic from News & Current Affairs: Political

baalhadadWed 19/12/07 01:54

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7150190.stm

Cameron attacked over donations

The Tories say they acted swiftly to declare the donations.
Conservative leader David Cameron's constituency party has admitted receiving more than £7,000 in invalid donations, it has emerged.

The Witney Conservative Party has voluntarily forfeited the cash to the Electoral Commission because the benefactors were not British voters.

Labour said it was "shocking", after Mr Cameron's criticism of Labour for its unlawful donations from David Abrahams.

But Tory aides said the incident was a "genuine mistake".

They say Mr Cameron had made it clear all along that errors would always occur at a local level.

According to the Electoral Commission website, the two donations received by the Witney association on 21 August were subsequently found to have been impermissible.

The donors were Roger Fletcher, who gave £5,900 and Geoffrey Dobbs, who offered up an auction prize of £1,500.

Some £7,400 was handed over to the Electoral Commission on 16 November.

A Tory spokesman said: "As soon as we became aware that these two donations were not permissible we declared and voluntarily forfeited them to the Electoral Commission."

Labour MP John Mann, who wrote to the Electoral Commission to complain about the donations, said: "This is a shocking revelation.

"It beggars belief that David Cameron was lecturing others and questioning their integrity, when he has not even bothered to check that his own house is in order."

The disclosure comes after weeks of controversy over Mr Abrahams' donation to Labour of more than £650,000 under other people's names.

Under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendum Act 2000, details of any donor making gifts through a third party must be registered and reported to the Electoral Commission. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he knew nothing about the third-party arrangements.

Mr Cameron has said this "beggars belief", while the Liberal Democrats called the scandal a "sleazy affair".

=== === ===

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest. The Conservatives have maintained from the very beginning that mistakes are made upon all sides. I think John Mann MP misses the point in this regard - nobody denies that electoral law is sometimes broken through human error, however, when one considers the scale of the Abraham's affair and the degree that it showed not error, but utter disregard for the law at senior levels of the party, one is talking of a different magnitude of crime. None of it is right, but goes to show why fundamental change is needed when it comes to political parties and their donors, which will must include commitment to the letter of the law.

There are 15 more postings on this topic on our Member website. For the full topic click to sign up to OUTeverywhere right now.

Enjoy chatting with our members

Imagine joining a social network of people from all around the country and see how you'll feel a year from today. You're increasing your circle of friends. You're doing more of the stuff you enjoy. You're having a great time meeting new people in your area. You're seeing all the benefits of becoming a member of OUTeverywhere. It still feels great making new friends and every day you're hearing more and more about the stuff that everyone's doing. You're joining in. Now, that was easy, wasn't it?

We make meeting people easy. Click to sign up to OUTeverywhere and get up and do something different!

PLEASE NOTE: Events are listed on this website on behalf of organisers in accordance with the Terms of Membership of OUTeverywhere and only if they have chosen broad publicity when adding their event to the Member Events calendar. As such, events are not necessarily affiliated to or endorsed by OUTeverywhere and may not be organised by the person who has listed the event: the person listing this event may simply be attending an event organised by another person or organisation and may wish to meet other people sharing their interest in the event. The mention or appearance of any person or organisation featured on these pages is not to be taken as any indication of sexual, social or political orientation of such persons or organisations. We cannot guarantee that the information is accurate and recommend that you always seek to contact the organiser directly to confirm full details of any event. Under no circumstances will we be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on, use or misuse of, the information on this website.

Our Vision | Our Team | Privacy Policy | Identity Theft Protection | Terms of Membership

Chat and Meet People

Enter one or two words to tell us something you enjoy:

Or enter a postcode or the name of a place:

Latest Shout OUT

Broadcast to the gay world with our public Shout OUTs service! Post on our member website or from your mobile phone and raise your profile.

Mr Bump.... Is Fat And Ugly. (stueyja) from Chafford Hundred in Grays, Essex in United Kingdom shouts OUT: "Instructions said my door mat was washable. So how come its come out of machine in about 1000 little pieces....bastard!!!"

Events Calendar

< May 2008 >
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

This Topic's Tags

Members tag topics with key words to help us find similar topics.

Discover GMEET

Add all your web profiles to the new GMEET.com website profiles directory service. Supports Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and dozens more. For social and business networking, web personals and online dating.