3:19pm Sunday 31st May 2009
By Chris Hopper
A CONTROVERSIAL Conservative donor has given cash for the party’s campaign in Pendle, it has been revealed.
The borough’s Labour MP Gordon Prentice has claimed the Tories were ‘trying to buy’ Pendle with Lord Ashcroft pumping in £250,000.
Conservative candidate for Pendle, Andrew Stephenson, has hit back at the ‘insulting claims’.
But he has revealed that the party was spending ‘£50,000 to £60,000’ a year in the borough — and that Lord Ashcroft was helping to pay for party work in Pendle.
Lord Ashcroft’s donations to the Conservative Party have proved controversial as he has declined to say whether he is a resident or pays taxes in the UK.
Labour MPs have regularly asked whether the donations complied with laws banning overseas' donations.
For a company to make donations to a political party it has to be registered in the UK and carry out business here.
Tory chiefs insist Lord Ashcroft’s donations were both "legal and permissible".
In February The Electoral Commission announced it was conducting a formal investigation into the multi-million pound donations made by Bearwood Corporate Services, which millions of pounds of Lord Ashcroft’s donations have come through.
Mr Prentice, in a posting on his website, claimed: “I believe tax exiles should not be allowed to bankroll UK political parties. For the past two years a tsunami of Ashcroft money has engulfed my Pendle constituency.
“The Lib Dem peer Tony Greaves, a constituent of mine, estimates that the Conservatives are on course to spend £250,000 here.”
Official Electoral Commission accounts for Pendle Tories for 2007, the last year available, show the organisation spent £56,000 in the constituency.
Mr Stephenson said it would be a similar amount this year.
He added: “The figures quoted by Mr Prentice are completely wrong and it is insulting to suggest the people of Pendle could be bought by anyone on any issue.
"All this just shows how nervous he is about the General Election.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk