Cameron hit by improper donations of £7,400 to local party

Published on Tuesday 18 December 2007 21:07

DAVID Cameron had two donations worth around £7,400 to his constituency party declared impermissible by the Electoral Commission, it has emerged.

The Tory leader's Witney Conservative Association has agreed to forfeit the sum to public funds because the benefactors were not on the UK electoral roll.

The revelation is a blow for Mr Cameron, who has made capital out of Labour's embarrassment over its proxy donor, property developer David Abrahams.

The donations to Mr Cameron's constituency party, from Roger Fletcher who gave 5,900 and Geoffrey Dobbs, who gave 1,500, were handed back on 16 November – nine days before the scandal over Labour's secret donor broke in a Sunday newspaper.

Last night, a spokesman for the Conservative Party said: "As soon as we became aware that these two donations were not permissible, we declared and voluntarily forfeited them to the Electoral Commission."

Privately, aides insist that the incident was a "genuine mistake".

Confirmation that the donations were ruled impermissible was posted on the Electoral Commission's website on Monday. Records show two donations received by the constituency association on 21 August were later found to have been impermissible.

Yesterday, Mr Cameron arrived in China for a three-day visit. However, in London, Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, accused the Tory leader of hypocrisy after allegations he made over Labour's illegal proxy donations.

"David Cameron sets a really high bar on these issues and he says it beggars belief that Gordon Brown did not know (what] was going on," she said.

"It beggars belief that David Cameron didn't know what was going on in his own backyard. There are some questions that need to be answered by Mr Cameron about why these donations were in the bank account for three months.

"Did he know what was happening in Witney? In my constituency (Salford], I would hope I'd have a pretty good idea of what the local finances were like."

John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said the revelation was "shocking".

He added: "We have heard Mr Cameron say someone who does not know what is going on in their party is not fit to lead the country.

"Presumably, he believes that is even more true for someone who does not know what is going on in their own constituency office."

'STRIP THEIR PEER POWER'

POLITICIANS should be stripped of their power to appoint peers in the wake of the cash-for-honours affair, say MPs.

Members of the House of Lords should instead be appointed by an independent body, while parties should publish the names of their preferred candidates with justification for their proposed peerages, according to a report by the Commons public administration committee. It also calls for the Electoral Commission to be given tougher enforcement powers and for a new Corruption Bill.

Tony Wright, the committee chairman, said people did not trust political parties to appoint peers on merit.