David Cameron fails to defuse growing sleaze scandal over cash for access

DAVID Cameron is facing calls to order an independent inquiry into cash for access after the Conservative Party’s senior fundraiser was forced to resign for claiming access to the Prime Minister could be secured through large donations to the Tories.

The Tory leader was plunged into a damaging row after Tory treasurer Peter Cruddas urged reporters posing as wealth fund executives to give more than £250,000 in return for direct face time with senior ministers.

Mr Cruddas was secretly filmed saying a donation of £250,000 gave “premier league” access to party leaders, including private dinners with Mr Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, and direct influence over government policies.

He also boasted about giving £1.2 million to the Conservatives and the “No to AV” campaign to change the UK’s electoral system, and said he had discussed the issue of Scottish independence with the Prime Minister, claiming that he and Mr Cameron had jokingly referred to Alex Salmond as the “mad Scotsman”.

Mr Cameron sought to distance his party from the claims on Sunday, insisting that was “not the way” the party raised money and promised an internal inquiry to ensure it would not happen again.

But Labour called for a full independent inquiry into the “incredibly serious” allegations of cash for access. Danny Alexander, the Prime Minister’s Liberal Democrat Cabinet colleague, described the claims as “utterly disgraceful”.

Mr Cruddas told the undercover reporters that there was no point in “scratching around” with donations of £10,000, but that £250,000 donations would make “things will open up” for the donor.

He also boasted that “some of our bigger donors have been for dinner in No 10 Downing Street in the Prime Minister’s private apartment, with Samantha”.

The row has led to renewed calls for reform of party funding. Sleaze watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly warned that the incident could not be seen as “an isolated event” and urged the parties to come through on their commitments to the “big donor culture”.

Leading Conservatives at Westminster were last night also said to be demanding all-party talks with opposition parties about political finance to be brought forward.

Senior Tories insisted Mr Cruddas had exaggerated the impact of donations to the party. Party deputy chairman Michael Fallon said Mr Cruddas had been “blustering and boasting and that was clearly wrong”.

He said: “Let me be very clear about this – we rely on lots of individual donations, but you can’t buy favours with those donations, and you certainly can’t dictate policy with those donations.”

Mr Cameron said: “What happened is completely unacceptable. This is not the way that we raise money in the Conservative Party. It shouldn’t have happened.

“It’s quite right that Peter Cruddas has resigned. I will make sure there is a proper party inquiry to make sure this can’t happen again.”

But Ed Miliband insisted the allegations could not be “swept under the carpet” and said an independent investigation must establish “what influence was sought, what influence was gained, and what impact it had”.

“The Prime Minister came into office promising that he would be transparent, and he would ensure that the right systems would be put in place around Conservative Party funding,” the Labour Party leader said.

“Now we discover very disturbing revelations about the way that access was sought, the way that access was bought or apparently at least offered.

“It can’t be an internal Conservative investigation sweeping it under the carpet and in a way keeping it from the public. We need to know what happened.

“These are so serious, these allegations, because it’s about the way that policy is made; we’ve just had a Budget in which the tax rate has been cut at the top of the income scale.

“We need to know what access was paid for, if access was paid for, and what contributions were made and the interaction between the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and Conservative Party donors.”

Mr Cruddas, who has been involved in fundraising for the party since June last year and took over as its principal fundraiser this month, was filmed by undercover Sunday Times reporters promising private dinners with the Prime Minister, Chancellor and other senior Cabinet ministers, such as Foreign Secretary William Hague and Education Secretary Michael Gove, in exchange for donations.

He said: “A hundred grand is not premier league. It’s not bad – it’s probably bottom of the premier league. Two hundred grand or 250 is premier league… what you would get is, when we talk about your donations the first thing we want to do is get you at the Cameron/Osborne dinners.

“If you donate you will be invited to events where the Prime Minister is there. And frequently, if you get into the right club and I can advise you, you could well be at a private house having a private dinner with the Chancellor. William Hague, David Cameron, Michael Gove, all the top ministers. The chairman of the party. Where around that table will be very distinguished business people.

“If you’re unhappy about something, we will listen to you and put it into the policy committee at No 10 – we feed all feedback to the policy committee. Things will open up for you. It’s no good scratching around and, here’s ten grand now and then we’ll send you five grand. Minimum 100 grand. But the nearer you can get to 200.”

He reportedly believed that any prospective donations from the reporters would come from Liechtenstein and would be ineligible under election law.

They are said to have discussed the creation of a British subsidiary and the possibility of using UK employees to make the donation.

Senior SNP MP Angus MacNeil said Mr Cruddas had attempted to use his financial muscle to interfere in the independence referendum.

He said: “These are dramatic revelations. It shows that Peter Cruddas, the man who financed the scuppering of the AV referendum, was already lining up with Cameron against the Scottish referendum.

“Under no circumstances should we allow Westminster involvement in running our referendum.

“The tightest rules on spending must be set in Scotland by the Scottish Parliament. Otherwise we will find Tories like Peter Cruddas raising money from Liechtenstein to attempt to buy the poll. We should tell Cameron to keep the Tory party’s grubby hands off Scotland’s referendum.”

In a statement released on Sunday afternoon, Mr Cruddas said he regretted “any impression of impropriety arising from my bluster”.

“Clearly there is no question of donors being able to influence policy or gain undue access to politicians.”

Former foreign secretary David Miliband said the disclosures showed the Tories had not changed.

Lord Fink will now return as principal treasurer, the party announced, with Michael Farmer acting as co-treasurer.