He’s got four problems:
1. He’s failed to declare donations on a massive scale, although the law makes him personally legally responsible.
2. He’s still heavily in debt.
3. He’s under regular scrutiny for his links with firms that also supported him financially (e.g. here and here).
4. The staff who worked on his campaign are falling out with a bout of mutual finger pointing – which is often the precursor to more bad news coming out.
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3 Comments
The news is bad enough as it stands. Failure to declare must be considered to be the most heinous of donation crimes – worse than using proxies. 17 are missing. What makes it worse is the nature of many of these donations which include donations from Brown’s chief fund-raiser and Hain’s campaign head.
Nothing surprises me now re some of our politicians.Integrity?Out thro’ the window at the first blip.I bet Hain wriggles out of this one.
HD, I’m not sure he will. Grayling’s got his teeth into him and when that happens he tends not to let go until there’s blood. Either Hain will be sacked now, if further problems emerge for him, or he will be quietly demoted to Europe minister (a job he’s had before), or equivalent level of Minister of State. I’m afraid his cabinet career will be over soon enough. Brown’s next reshuffle (summer 08) will remove some bodies he never really wanted in there in the first place (Hain, Woodward (unfortunately). I don’t think he’ll be able to get rid of Hutton, who might get vindictive. Best to keep him on board. With two ministers out of the cabinet he can bring in one or two of Yvette Cooper, Liam Byrne, Caroline Flint, or Dawn Primarolo.