Question marks over David Cameron’s donors
Written by Mark Pack on 28th September 2008 – 1:03 pmFrom the Mail on Sunday:
David Cameron faced embarrassment on the eve of his party conference last night after members of a secretive club of Tory donors were linked to the ‘short-selling’ of the collapsing Bradford & Bingley.
As the bank was taken into the hands of the authorities ahead of its break-up or nationalisation, two members of Mr Cameron’s elite Leaders Group were revealed to have bet on its falling share price, which has dropped by 95 per cent in a year.
A hedge fund managed by Michael Hintze, who has given £660,000 to the Tories since Mr Cameron took over, declared ‘bets’ on the bank’s falling share price in July.
A second fund, GLG Partners, which declared its ‘short-selling’ in Bradford & Bingley in June, is managed by Belgian Pierre Lagrange, whose wife Catherine has given £50,000 to the Conservative Party…
Last year Mr Cameron apologised ‘unreservedly’ after The Mail on Sunday disclosed that he had been using his taxpayer-funded Commons office to stage lunches for the Leaders Group.
The Committee on Standards and Privileges criticised Mr Cameron for ‘abusing’ Westminster facilities.
Members of the group are promised that they will be ‘kept close to policy developments and meet with the Leader several times a year at small dinners or lunches’.
Its activities are shrouded in secrecy. Its existence was not even acknowledged on the party’s website until Friday after Channel 4 and this newspaper made enquiries about its membership…
Last night Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, whose request to Mr Cameron for details of all meetings held by the group since April 2007 was refused, said: ‘It seems that Mr Cameron’s commitment to freedom of information stops as soon as it concerns his own financial activities.’
Posted in Opposition watch
28th September 2008 at 1:45 pm
… with a hat tip to Peter Black, who beat you to it
28th September 2008 at 1:47 pm
You couldn’t make this up. The Lib Dems have taken £162,235 in a series of donations from Paul Marshall of Marshall-Wace, a well known hedge fund manager and shorter of stocks, but even this amount pales by comparison with “financial trader” Michael Brown.
So which is it? Did the Lib Dems take £2.4 million from a derivatives trader (who by definition takes short positions as much as long positions) or not.
28th September 2008 at 1:51 pm
Mark, “you’re doing it too!!” is a distraction, not a justification.
28th September 2008 at 2:27 pm
So Cameron is linked to some people who were doing something perfectly legal at the time. Devastating stuff.
28th September 2008 at 2:38 pm
Not exactly devastating, as Laurence points out, but might it make Dave think twice before spending this week loudly bemoaning shorting? Hypocrisy stinks nearly as much as corruption, after all…
28th September 2008 at 2:44 pm
Laurence: don’t forget the points about Cameron trying to keep it all secret, and also having had the Parliamentary authorities rule that he had broken the rules.
28th September 2008 at 2:49 pm
Jennie,
The difference between the two parties is that the Conservatives are not questioning the propriety of accepting donations from financial traders. The Liberal Democrats are doing so whilst happily accepting seven cash donations and seven non-cash from Paul Marshall and several larger value donations from Michael Brown.
Personally I see nothing wrong with taking donations from any permissible donor where tbere are no conflicts of interest, and I also think that short selling of shares is just as acceptable as short selling of any traded commodity, but I do find such hypocrisy quite objectionable, but being two faced is second nature to the tax-and-spend/ tax-cutting Lib Dems.
28th September 2008 at 4:53 pm
Gosh! I can’t believe that we got to comment #2 before somebody mentioned Michael Brown !!!!!
28th September 2008 at 5:23 pm
What on earth is two faced about detailing a new policy and fully debating it at a publicly broadcast conference?
28th September 2008 at 6:52 pm
I don’t really get this one.
The story is that people who donate money to the Tories are engaged in a legal and usually perfectly laudable financial occupation?
I’m sure that there’s more than enough genuine weaknesses that we can hit the Tories on without attempting New Labour style character assassination. Seeing the erudite Alan Duncan attempt to defend their inheritance tax policy suggests we might want to be focusing on that.
28th September 2008 at 7:17 pm
Good shout Peter
28th September 2008 at 9:52 pm
You, Mark Pack, and the whiter-than-white MP for Lewes really are petty. No rules were broken. You claim that no rules were broken with Michael Brown’s £2M donation. What’s the difference? Stop being so bloody petty and offer readers reasons to support the Lib Dems.
28th September 2008 at 10:59 pm
Surely for ever short seller there is a buyer. And most of the time the buyer will be “betting” that the price will go up
28th September 2008 at 11:07 pm
The Tories need a new anthem: to be sung to a well known tune…
“Sleaze is coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming home… it’s coming. Three wimps in the dirt…”
29th September 2008 at 9:09 pm
The Daily Mail article neglects to mention that of of the directors of hedge fund GLG is Paul Myners, friend of Gordon, recipient of numerous government appointments, Labour Party donor and chairman of Guardian Media.