How big were Lord Ashcroft's donations?
The claim:
“The position of Lord Ashcroft is that he is not the major donor to the Conservative party. He’s given less that 1 per cent I think this year…”
Michael Gove MP, Channel 4 News, 1 March 2010
The background:
Lord Ashcroft, the deputy Conservative party chairman and confirmed non-dom peer, has attracted attention for his donations, particulary those used to fund campaigns in Tory target seats.
But Conservative frontbencher Michael Gove, both on Channel 4 News and in broadcast interviews elsewhere played down Ashcroft’s role in funding the party, saying he was not their biggest donor.
So how big have Ashcroft’s donations really been?
The analysis:
Gove is right to say Lord Ashcroft was responsible for a small fraction of the Tory total in the last year. A company in which the peer has an interest, Bearwood Corporate Services, donated £329,858 to the Conservative party in 2009.
That’s about 1 per cent of the total fund, including some public money, that the party received. In 2009 the property tycoon David Rowland made a single donation bigger than Bearwood’s total contribution for the year.
What about the funding picture since the party became David Cameron’s Conservatives?
FactCheck analysis of donations made to the Tory party since the start of 2006 suggests Ashcroft’s company has been the most generous single benefactor over this longer period.
We totted up the total payments from every donor who gave a single payment of at least £100,000 to the Conservative party between 2006 and the end of 2009, according to the Electoral Commission’s register.
Ashcroft’s company, Bearwood Corporate Services, donated £4,131,995 over the four-year period, in 27 separate chunks of cash or services in kind, such as focus groups or printing costs.
Although there were generous contributions from other donors, none came within a million pounds of the total received via Bearwood.
The Conservative party would not comment on the amounts given by individual donors, but pointed out that less than 5 per cent of its cash and in-kind donations since Cameron became leader came via Ashcroft.
The verdict
Ashcroft money does make up a small slice of the total Conservative pie. But our analysis of party funds found his company to be the biggest single donor since David Cameron became leader.
There are 9 comments on this post
Thank goodness for the Freedom of Information Act. Otherwise Cameron would still be denying he knew anything about Ashcroft’s status! Methinks he doth protest too much – oh dear, is the super salesman going to experience a Nixongate!
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Did you include a sum for the private jet flights provided by cashcroft to high powered tories?
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I noted that you didn’t question Chris Huhne about his donor whose company has previously had interests in the Cayman Islands or about all that money Mandelson earnt when he was in Brussels. Enough witchhunts its not only the BBC that should have its budget cut. If public funding does not provide balanced coverage then save the money and scrap the coverage!
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So there seems to be three options. (A) as a result of Ashcrofts donations, the conservative party were able to make political headway. (B) Ashcroft made his biggest donations when the conservatives pulled themselves together and came up with a credible leader who has a real chance of becoming prime-minister. (C) David Cameron became leader of the conservatives as part of a wider gambit that included promised funding from Ashcroft. You know I not really happy at the thought of any of them.
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Is there something obscene about a political system where – because only a few hundred thousand voters (swing voters in marginal constituencies) actually matter – it is possible for a single donor to seek to effectively acquire those votes for one party?
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Please, if Channel4 wishes to be taken seriously, give some balanced and honest reporting. You are focused on the conservatives. Has Ashcroft been accused of cheating his expenses, as has one of Labour’s pet non-dom fellow House of Lords donators. Has he been accused of criminal activity, as has one of the Lib Dem’s non dom donators? Why are you so quiet on these, and possibly a bunch we know nothing about? Or does C4 just want to keep it quiet to suit personal / corporate political agendas?
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There is no surprise here. The very nature and tolerance that wealthy individuals should be allowed to donate such sums, is clear indication of attempts to influence policy and benefit individual agendas. It’s very much like paying the Police bonuses to suppress and quell legitimate and justifiable public protests, to in order to distort truths.
The problem with most people and parties is, immoral and corrupt underhand behaviour even when in positions of trust. When some fat-cat comes along offering huge donations, all moral considerations go out of the window and, peerages, Sir titles and elite dining appointments are made.
One only has to analyse the events over the last 30+ years in the UK to see how the corrupt rich and, the colluding scum in Parliament & Banks have changed the face and, ruined the reputation of this country.
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The question should be what business does Bearwood involve itself in and how much money does it make??
Is it just a front or a vehicle for one mans political ambitions? this maybe legitimate but is it right? Does it make so much money in the UK that it can afford to be the Tories biggest donator in recent years?
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