Tories retreat over donations principle

The donation to the Conservatives of £1 million by hedge fund manager Stanley Fink, revealed on Saturday, has been written up as an indicator of strength by the weekend papers. Isn't it really a great sign of weakness?

Why? Because David Cameron has long wanted to wean the party of individual big donors but doesn't seem to able to.

Mr Cameron said in July 2006:

We've got to stop this perception that parties can somehow be bought by big donations either from very rich people, or trade unions, or businesses

He simultaneously proposed a £50,000 cap on all donations, providing Labour applied it equally to the trade unions. Since Labour hasn't fulfilled their half of the bargain, this hasn't happened. But this didn't stop Team Cameron trying to clean up their own Augean stables.

The Leader’s Club was the Tory's new method of diversifying their donor base: lots of individuals giving £50,000 to attend parties and dinners with leader and team.

It worked a treat: the Electoral Commission shows donations to the Tory party in 2008 cluster around the £50,000 mark: there were 47 of exactly £50,000 in the year to September (latest available figures), but only a handful above that, including just one in the highest band: £300,000 from Lord Ashcroft's company Bearwood Corporate Services. Clearly party chiefs weren't keen to go above £50,000.

Until now. According to reports, Mr Fink has handed over £1 million immediately and "has indicated to people close to the matter that he will give more substantial support when the election is called."

Worse, Fink actually got something from Team Cameron - a title - "co-Treasurer". He may be the "junior party" to Michael Spencer, as someone appears to have been briefing spikily over the weekend, but it's still something that could go on business cards.

The return of £1 million donations to the Tory party under Cameron is a significant moment. To put it in size context, below is the Sunday Times Rich List of political donations from 2007, the latest year available.

See how only two Conservatives - Laidlaw and Ashcroft - gave over £1 million. In the data available so far for 2008, both appear to have give much less (Laidlaw because the £2.9 million was a loan converted into a donation).

1 Lord Laidlaw £3,481,582 Conservative
2 Lord Sainsbury £2,005,000 Labour
3 Lakshmi Mittal £2,000,000 Labour
4 Lord Ashcroft £1,697,487 Conservative
5 Mahmoud Khayami £980,000 Labour
6 Brian Souter £625,000 SNP
7 Michael Spencer £605,166 Conservative
8 Malcolm Scott £589,995 Conservative
9 Lord Harris £488,851 Conservative
10 Nigel Doughty £269,000 Labour

Comments

[David Boothroyd]

An 'Aegean stable' isn't much good, as it would get the horses very wet. I think you mean 'Augean stable', the cleaning of which (in a single day) was the fifth labour of Hercules.

[nigel]

Cameron is full of spin, he had no intention of changing the way the Tories are funded, it will surprise no one that hedge fund manager Stanley Fink is backing the Tories after all it’s the hedge funds that got us in the shit in first place. What better way to avoid regulation than to back Cameron’s Tories who talk the talk but never walk the walk. David spin, spin Cameron has backed down on every stated reform, More women MPs scraped , green issues scraped , more MPs from ethnic minorities scraped, ending shadow cabinet second jobs scraped, he announces change on Monday backs down on Tuesday. PR Dave is spining out of control..

[John Strafford]

The biggest donor to the Conservative Party in 2008 is the National Conservative Draws Society, which raises funds from ordinary members in amounts of £50 and less. A classic case of how to raise large sums of money in small amounts from a large number of people.