War of words breaks out over party political funding (From This Is Cheshire)

War of words breaks out over party political funding

1:30pm Friday 19th March 2010

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A WAR of words has broken out over political party funding after a Labour MP hopeful sent an open letter to his Conservative counterpart.

Nick Bent, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Warrington South, asked Conservative candidate David Mowat about donations from Tory peer Lord Ashcroft, who has been hitting the headlines for not paying UK tax on his earnings.

But Mr Mowat has hit back by asking him to reveal how much his campaign might have received by Labour non-domiciled supporters.

Lord Ashcroft donated £5,000 to the Warrington South Conservative Association from his company Bearswood Corporate Services to help with the 2005 election campaign of Penketh and Cuerdley Conservative councillor Fiona Bruce when she stood for MP.

Mr Bent said in his letter: “I feel compelled to write a formal, open letter to you now in the light of the latest revelations about the Conservative Party deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft.”

He went on to list 10 questions asking about Lord Ashcroft and whether the association knew about his non-domiciled status when they took the money.

In reply Mr Mowat said: “Nick Bent is concerned about a donation that was made to the association in 2005. This is two years before I was a candidate and five years before he was.

“The donation was legal and properly reported. Since that time the Labour Party has received more than £5 million from their non-domiciled donors.”

He also said that he had not received any money from Lord Ashcroft and would not do so in the future then asked could Mr Bent do the same.

Mr Bent also spoke in his letter about £80,000 funding the Conservatives have had since 2007, most coming from Mr Mowat.

“This seat is not for sale to the highest bidder, then or now,” said Mr Bent.

But Mr Mowat said: “The real point here is that the Labour party cannot defend their record in Warrington so they try to raise issues like this. The issues I hear about on the doorstep are jobs, the NHS and the harm that 13 years of Labour has done.”

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