Labour’s secret donor: what the law says

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th November 2007 - 11:25 pm

Here are the facts of the matter as we know them so far:

1. “A wealthy North East property developer has admitted being behind a series of large donations to the Labour Party. David Abrahams gave more than £400,000 to the party through “friends” Janet Kidd and Ray Ruddick because, he said, he did not want to “seek publicity” … He said he had “gifted funds to my friends and colleagues” so they could make donations on his behalf. ” [Source: BBC]

2. “Ray Ruddick, 55, who drives a Transit van and lives in an ex-council house, was registered as having given £196,850 to Labour since 2003 … Janet Kidd, 56, who works as a secretary for Mr Abrahams and is also a director of some of his companies, is also registered as having given £185,000 to Labour over a similar period. She lives in a modest, semidetached home in Gateshead, Two of their donations, each of £80,000, were made on the same day in July shortly after Mr Brown became Prime Minister. The combined total of the donations is £381,850 over four years.” [Source: The Times]

And this is what the law says:

Where—
(a) any person (“the agent”) causes an amount to be received by a registered party by way of a donation on behalf of another person (“the donor”), and
(b) the amount of that donation is more than £200, the agent must ensure that, at the time when the donation is received by the party, the party is given all such details in respect of the donor as are required by virtue of paragraph 2 of Schedule 6 to be given in respect of the donor of a recordable donation.
[Source: Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, 54 (6)]

In turn, paragraph 2 of Schedule 6 says:

In the case of an individual the report [to the Electoral Commission] must give his full name and—
(a) if his address is, at the date of receipt of the donation, shown in an electoral register (within the meaning of section 54) [or the Gibraltar register], that address; and
(b) otherwise, his home address (whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere).

8 Comments

Letters From A Tory 26th Nov '07 - 8:43am

I don’t think Labour will get away with this – the only question is how serious will the punishment be?

And what happened to that dodgy Lib Dem donation that you were supposed to be paying back sometime soon?
Stephen Tall 26th Nov '07 - 8:46am

Sigh… the usual Tory smears about “that dodgy donation”… so tedious.

Let’s be clear what the Electoral Commission said about it:

“The Electoral Commission has previously made clear its view that it was reasonable for the Liberal Democrats – based on the information available to them at the time – to regard the donations they received from 5th Avenue Partners Ltd in 2005, totalling just over £2.4m, as permissible.

“It remains the Commission’s view that the Liberal Democrats acted in good faith at that time, and the Commission is not re-opening the question of whether the party or its officers failed to carry out sufficient checks into the permissibility of the donations.”

There is a separate issue about whether the money Michael Brown gave the party was his to give away – but it is perfectly clear that the Lib Dems acted properly according to the Commission. So why the continued smears, LFAT?
Greg Stone 26th Nov '07 - 11:25am

We have checked EARS in Newcastle and Mr Ruddick is registered, although the only record we have of him voting in the last decade or so was May 2004.
tory boys never grow up 26th Nov '07 - 12:45pm

How the hell does Greg Stone know if the guy voted – don’t the Lib Dems have a moral/legal requirement to keep such details confidential – perhaps I should tell all LibDems to f*** off in future when they contact me during elections?
Bridget Fox 26th Nov '07 - 1:04pm

Emily Thornberry Labour MP on the Westminster Hour http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/westminsterhour
was struggling to defend this dodgy deal, basically saying, well, the Tories are no better.

She may be a lawyer; I’m glad she’s not mine….
Rob F 26th Nov '07 - 5:36pm

The General Secretary has now quit, no doubt thanks to Lib Dem Voice’s tireless campaigning 😉
David Rowe 27th Nov '07 - 7:17pm

Well its like this,If there is!or was! giving a donation to another and calling it corrupt thats not correct is it!Just think how many millions of donations of everykind given to all nations and projects its what the world is based upon!its not ideal but it works so be assured of this if you give me £500,000!! you wont get it back .Have fun.
Jock Coats 2nd Dec '07 - 6:50pm

Tory boys never grow up @ 4…

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