David Cameron promised to probe
allegations that his Conservative Party offered cash-for-access
after its co-treasurer was filmed claiming that large donations
would secure meetings with the British prime minister.
Peter Cruddas resigned yesterday after the Sunday Times
published secretly filmed comments in which he appeared to offer
access to Cameron in exchange for 250,000 pounds ($397,000).
Speaking to reporters posing as wealth fund executives,
Cruddas claimed large donors have previously been invited to
private dinners with Cameron and his wife Samantha in their
Downing Street apartment. He said “things will open up” for
anybody willing to make a large donation, adding, “it will be
awesome for your business.”
British lawmakers recommended capping donations to
political parties to curb the perception of corruption after a
2006 police investigation into accusations that the-then Prime
Minister Tony Blair’s Labour Party sold seats in the House of
Lords for financial support. In 2010, Cameron said he was
“disgusted” by a secretly filmed television report claiming to
show former Labour ministers discussing how they could use their
experience and contacts in government to lobby on behalf of
companies.
‘Nothing Improper’
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said high-value
donors could expect to be invited to dinners with Cameron,
though not in his Downing Street apartment. “There’s nothing
remotely improper about that, or new, and all parties do that,”
Maude told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” show. “What’s being alleged
here is that you can buy influence, you can buy policy, and that
is simply not the case.”
Maude said the only people invited into Cameron’s private
apartments were personal friends, and that their identities
should remain private.
Cameron described yesterday’s claims as “completely
unacceptable” and said it was “right” that Cruddas had
resigned. An opposition Labour Party spokesman, Michael Dugher,
yesterday wrote to Cameron demanding that he publish details of
donors who have visited the prime minister both at Downing
Street and at his official country residence, Chequers.
“What happened is completely unacceptable, it shouldn’t
have happened,” Cameron said in televised comments at a Sports
Relief event in Buckinghamshire, England yesterday. “It’s quite
right that Peter Cruddas has resigned. I’ll make sure there’s a
proper party inquiry to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
‘Questions’
“I think people are bound to ask questions about whether
policy is being made in the national interest or the
Conservative Party’s interest,” Labour leader Ed Miliband said
in an e-mailed statement last night. “That’s why there needs to
be a statement made in the House of Commons and a proper
independent investigation on what happened.”
The Conservative Party made “well over” 5 million pounds
selling private dinners with Cameron to the party’s biggest
donors, in which they can pick up “key bits of information” by
asking him questions, the Sunday Times cited Cruddas as saying.
He said that “premier league” donors prepared to give
250,000 pounds a year could lobby Cameron directly and their
views would be “fed in” to the Downing Street policy unit.
There was no point in “scratching around” with donations of
10,000 pounds, he said.
‘Utterly Disgraceful’
His claims were “utterly disgraceful,” Chief Secretary to
the Treasury Danny Alexander, a member of the coalition
government’s Liberal Democrat party, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr
program yesterday. He said such behavior had “no place” in
politics.
Alexander said the incident should prompt fresh efforts to
reform the party funding system.
There is a “perception that people who make large
donations, be they wealthy people from the City or trade unions,
have influence,” he said. “They should not have that
influence, nor the perception of that influence.”
The Conservative Party said that donations “do not buy
government policy” and that it will “urgently investigate”
any evidence to the contrary, according to an e-mailed
statement.
In his resignation statement, Cruddas, founder of CMC
Markets Plc, described his comments as “bluster” and said
there was “no question” of donors gaining undue access to
senior figures.
“Clearly there is no question of donors being able to
influence policy or gain undue access to politicians,” Cruddas
said. “It was categorically not the case that I could offer, or
that David Cameron would consider, any access as a result of a
donation.”
Cruddas will be replaced as the party’s co-treasurer by
Stanley Fink, a Conservative e-mailed statement said.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Svenja O’Donnell in London at
sodonnell@bloomberg.net;
Robert Hutton in London at
rhutton1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Craig Stirling at
cstirling1@bloomberg.net
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