The Standard reports:
Gordon Brown’s chief fundraiser advocated the use of unlawful third parties for donations, it emerged today.
In a potentially explosive revelation, it’s been reported that Jon Mendelsohn suggested that at least one Labour deputy leadership campaign should use a “network” of people to cover up the real identities of donors…
The Standard has learned that Mr Mendelsohn himself raised the idea of keeping donors’ names secret – a practice which the Prime Minister this week said was “unlawful”.
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6 Comments
Ahhh, the Standard. A liberal and not at all rabid paper if ever I read one. Presumably if JM naively suggested this he was told to go take a running jump. As far as we know – apart from Harriet’s accident – there have been no cases of agents being used by DL candidates and two at least of such arrangements being refused.
But the Standard?
Chris, you are literally unbelievable.
I just heard a journalist on his phone saying that Mendelsohn had initiated legal proceedings against the standard, and that the story wasn’t going to go anywhere at the moment.
I do hope Mendelsohn isn’t thinking of calling into play the Simple Sword of Truth and the Shield of British Fair Play
This from the BBC website:
Wendy Alexander’s campaign for the Scottish Labour leadership broke the law by accepting money from a Jersey-based businessman.
Her campaign manager, Tom McCabe, accepted there was a clear breach of donation rules when a cheque for £950 was accepted from developer Paul Green.
The MSP who sought the donation, Charlie Gordon, has quit as Labour’s transport spokesman at Holyrood.
The party has reported the matter to the Electoral Commission.
During a press conference, Mr McCabe said the incident had cast a shadow over Ms Alexander’s leadership campaign.
I think that an impermissible £950 donation from Jersey is the least of Labour’s worries. Indeed, if it wasn’t for everything else going on it might not even be newsworthy.