Anger at Lord Ashcroft as Ann Keen MP vows 'you can't buy seat' (From Your Local Guardian)
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Anger at Lord Ashcroft as Ann Keen MP vows 'you can't buy seat'
1:00pm Saturday 6th February 2010 in
Ann Keen has waded into the debate over Lord Ashcroft’s donations to the Conservative Party by declaring: “You can’t buy this seat.”
The Brentford and Isleworth MP sent a clear message to Tory campaigners in her constituency following claims the controversial peer had set up a fund targeting marginal seats, including Brentford.
She said: “I am an experienced MP with a proven track record of delivering change in the constituency. Judge that against PR stunts, glossy air-brushed images and donations to the Tory campaign from abroad.”
Lord Ashcroft’s companies and his wife have reportedly donated £4.8m to the Conservatives since the last election, but he will not confirm if he pays tax in Britain.
Mary Macleod, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Brentford and Isleworth, said the peer contributed less than 5 per cent of donations to the party last year, and insisted none of his cash had directly funded her campaign.
Her team has been delivering 40,000 election leaflets a month in a bid to unseat Mrs Keen, costing up to £2,000 a round.
She said: “The Labour MP in this constituency receives a £10,000 taxpayer-funded communications allowance annually, so it is immediately not a level playing field for any other candidate.
“The Conservative headquarter’s funding attempts to address this imbalance.”
She added: “I am not going to try dirty political games and personal attacks to win at the general election. I will fight on issues and concerns that are really important to address in our communities.”
Councillor Andrew Dakers, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Brentford and Isleworth, said it was “neither fair nor democratic” for a multi-millionaire with an unclear tax status to shape the outcome of a general election.
He said: “To reduce the excessive influence of a few individuals the Liberal Democrats have argued that donations from a single donor should be capped at £50,000 per annum. Unfortunately, as yet, neither Labour nor the Conservatives have chosen to support this.”
Legg report
Sir Thomas Legg’s report on MPs’ abuse of the expenses system yesterday revealed Mrs Keen has repaid £2,643 since April last year.
The Health Minister and her husband Alan Keen, MP for Feltham and Heston, overclaimed for cleaning costs by £790 in 2006-07.
The Commons fees office had wrongly paid Mr Keen £1,790 and Mrs Keen £1,000 for the same house.
Sir Thomas recommended Mr Keen still had £345 to pay back, while his wife has already returned her half of the excess.
A spokeswoman for parliamentary standards commissioner John Lyon confirmed this week his inquiry into whether the couple abused their second home allowance
Comments(8)
Phillip Taylor
says...
4:51am Sun 7 Feb 10
POLITICAL LEVY
There is still a political levy system in operation as I understand it where you have to opt out of the levy- the reality today is you should have to opt in to pay the money to the Labour Party. Fortunately, you are not forced to join a union these days- just your own profesional body which is the modern guild/union and wholly undemocratic.
On the Michael Brown issue, I thought he was still at large, or has he now been caught- perhaps MacGregor can enlighten us further on this sorry business? Lord Ashcroft is not the story... Michael Brown and the unions are.
Phillip Taylor
TheParkie
says...
8:48am Sun 7 Feb 10
MacGregor
says...
10:26pm Sun 7 Feb 10
It would appear that Michael Brown is still at large, and I have found two stories on this matter. BBC2’s Newsnight investigated – on 19 June 2009 – and the article starts: “Police are looking into money laundering allegations over the Liberal Democrats' acceptance of £2.4m from a donor later convicted of fraud. Michael Brown's donation hugely boosted the party's 2005 election campaign, the BBC's Newsnight programme said. Mr Brown was convicted of fraud in 2008 but vanished before being sentenced to seven years in jail last month. The party said its auditors were "satisfied that we do not need to make provision for repayment". Mr Brown's victims say the Liberal Democrats were using their stolen money. Now one of them, Robert Mann, who is already suing the party to get it back, has instructed his lawyers to ask police to investigate whether the party breached the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act.”
For more see: http://news.bbc.co.u
k/1/hi/8110452.stm
And “The Independent” had an article – on 2 December 2009 – that reports: “Britain's elections watchdog is facing a damaging High Court challenge over its decision that the Liberal Democrats do not have to repay a £2.4m donation given by a fraudulent bond dealer who swindled £34m out of his investors. Victims of Michael Brown, 43, who is on the run after being sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, are investigating applying for a judicial review of the decision by the Electoral Commission that the donation – the biggest ever received by the Lib Dems – was given legally. This was despite evidence it was funded entirely from stolen money. The bond dealer was an unknown businessman when he offered Britain's third largest political party a series of large donations on the eve of the 2005 general election, despite not being registered to vote in Britain. His largesse extended to arranging for Charles Kennedy, the then party leader, to fly around Britain on his private jet at a cost of £30,000.”
For more see: http://www.independe
nt.co.uk/news/uk/pol
itics/watchdog-chall
enged-over-16324m-do
nation-to-lib-dems-1
832218.html
Phillip Taylor
says...
5:04am Mon 8 Feb 10
Of course, as Parkie points out, we really do not need to have lessons from these MPs like the Keens although Lord Ashcroft is entitled to do what he wants and has behaved completely reasonably when you look at the unions, and also the way the Liberals get their money.
MPs IN THE DOCK
I cannot understand why only 4 politicians have been done over expenses when reports say at least half of them have been at it. And to use parliamentary privilege as a defence is the final insult!
Phillip Taylor
Radioactive Rissole
says...
1:08pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Has'nt her entire ministerial career been little more than an airbrushed PR stunt ?
MacGregor
says...
12:46am Sat 13 Feb 10
The article also says: “Labour has attacked Lord Ashcroft while turning a blind eye to the activities of one of their biggest donors. Lord Paul has refused to pay tax in this country yet is greeted with open arms by the Labour leadership”.
The rest of the story is here: http://order-order.c
om/
I await Ann Keen’s comments with keen interest.
UKIP Candidate
says...
7:54pm Sun 21 Feb 10
There is one party that is sustained almost wholly by the wallets of the supporters of the party and rarely get any significant donations. UKIP is the only party that promises to treat the British people respectfully over their wishes to withdraw from the European Union (the only reason the three parties refuse a referendum is because a. they are in the EU pocket and b. unofficial surveys indicate a large majority of the public want out of the EU).
So Keen and Macleod - focus on giving the British public a service focussed on Britains best interests - not whines about contributions.
Jerry Shadbolt
UKIP Candidate Feltham & Heston
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MacGregor says...
3:57pm Sat 6 Feb 10
Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords Lord Paul who is the steel magnate, the former Swraj Paul; Sir Ghulam Noon dubbed ‘the curry king’, and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
Perhaps Ann Keen could challenge her own party over these ‘non dom’ donors – if she’s not too busy defending her, and her Labour MP husband’s expenses claims.
As for the Lib Dem candidate – could he explain why the Lib Dems always take the moral high ground against others yet turn the proverbial blind eye to their own financial problems? For instance, they took a £2.4m donation – in good faith – from Michael Brown – who was living abroad – and who later turned out to have got the money by less than honest means. Although the Electoral Commission cleared the Lib Dems, why didn’t they offer to give back some – if not all – of that money?