Lord Ashcroft paid for Tory bid to unseat Alistair Darling

THE Conservatives' campaign to oust Alistair Darling at the last general election was bankrolled by controversial Tory donor Lord Ashcroft, it has emerged.

Edinburgh South West was one of the party's target seats at the 2005 election, though in the end Labour won with a majority of 7,242.

Official figures reveal Lord Ashcroft channelled more than 14,000 into the local party in the six months before polling day.

The Tories are targeting the seat again at the forthcoming election. Today Labour asked whether more money from the Belize-based billionaire was being used in a bid to defeat the Chancellor.

But Conservative candidate Jason Rust and party bosses insisted they had not received any money from Lord Ashcroft this time. The Tory peer revealed on Monday he has "non-dom" status, allowing him to escape paying UK taxes on his foreign earnings.

Some estimates suggest he has saved himself around 127 million over ten years through the arrangement.

Figures from the Electoral Commission show Lord Ashcroft made three separate donations to Edinburgh Pentlands Conservatives from his company, Bearwood Corporate Services, between October 2004 and April 2005, totalling 14,411.22.

Labour seized on comments made by Tory MSP Alex Johnstone before details of the donations emerged to accuse him of misleading the electorate.

Mr Johnstone said last week: "The Scottish Conservative party raises all its finance within Scotland and does not benefit from any financial support from Lord Ashcroft."

The MSP said he was talking about the current situation.

Councillor Rust said his campaign had not received any donations from Lord Ashcroft. He said: "All the money we have is raised through party membership, fundraising events and a special appeal."

He acknowledged that Scottish Conservative central office had paid for certain aspects of the campaign in Edinburgh South West.

But he said: "I can give a categoric assurance we have received no money from Lord Ashcroft or his companies."

A Scottish Conservative spokesman said the party did not receive any funding from Tory central office in London.

"All the money spent in Scotland is raised in Scotland. We have received nothing from Lord Ashcroft or any of his companies since these donations in 2004 and 2005."

Two-way fight for succession

TWO city councillors will battle it out to succeed Nigel Griffiths as Labour's candidate in Edinburgh South at the general election.

Liberton councillor Ian Murray and Angela Blacklock, who represents Leith Walk, were the only two hopefuls shortlisted by party bosses out of 12 applicants. The party said none of the other candidates has obvious links to the constituency. Mr Griffiths had a majority of 405 at the last election.