The Labour Party is waiting to turn the tables on the opposition, says donald malcolm |
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As government ministers squirm under the attention of police investigating the cash-for-peerages scandal, some in the Labour Party are rubbing their hands at the prospect of a counter-attack. Not on the police, but on the Tories - and in particular on the Tory Labour loves to hate, Lord Ashcroft.
Just as Blair's good friend Lord Levy (nickname: "Lord Cashpoint") finds himself at the eye of a fundraising storm today, so Michael Ashcroft ("Cashcroft") was the subject of an equally ferocious media and political onslaught when, from 1998 to 2001, he acted as Treasurer of the Conservative Party under William Hague.
He came under fire for three reasons: he was based in Belize and so paid little UK income tax; he collected donations from abroad; and he was too secretive in his fund-raising methods. Crucially, he continued to be
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| Ashcroft came under fire because he was based in Belize and so paid very little UK income tax |
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a private donor after 2001, and, by exploiting a new law on election funding, he discovered the "Ashcroft loophole".
In a nutshell, he used his company Bearwood Corporate Services to pour large sums of money - quite legally - into local Tory associations before the new election funding limits kicked in prior to polling day. They were mainly marginal constituencies and in at least one case, it enabled a huge and unexpected swing to the Tories. In a speech earlier this year, the Constitutional Affairs minister Harriet Harman said: "Most of these constituencies had above average swings to the Conservative Party, and in the case of Hammersmith and Fulham, a £42,000 donation undoubtedly contributed to the huge 7.4 per cent swing."
If and when the dust settles on the cash-for-peerages investigation, the government will produce its fourth piece of legislation on election funding since 1997 - and its top priority will be to close the Ashcroft loophole.
The loophole was created by the Labour government’s Political Parties, Elections and  |
