History > 2006 > UK > Politics (I)

Donations to Tories

hit nearly £9m in three months

Friday May 26, 2006
Guardian
Tania Branigan, political correspondent


The Conservatives received almost £9m of donations in the first three months of this year, according to official figures released yesterday by the Electoral Commission.

The flood of cash, which followed David Cameron's election as Tory leader in December, dwarfed gifts to the other parties. Labour received less than £3m and the Lib Dems under £700,000.

Many Conservative supporters held back from giving money in the previous quarter, partly because they had given during the general election campaign and partly because the leadership contest was under way.

But the largest single donation to the party at the start of this year is a conversion from a loan, following the controversy over the funding of general election campaigns. Both the Conservatives and Labour have been criticised for borrowing money, as loans - unlike gifts - do not have to be declared under current rules. The government has promised to close that loophole.

The commission's quarterly report, which includes all donations of more than £5,000, shows political donations totalled £12.7m in the last quarter, an increase of more than £5m on the previous three months. They include around £75,000 of donations registered late by the three main parties. The register also shows that the Conservatives returned two gifts, with a total value of £1,500, because they were deemed impermissible.

The party's biggest single donation was £2.1m from the car-importing company International Motors, run by the evangelical Christian Bob Edmiston. A long-term supporter, he loaned the money before the general election, but agreed to give the cash to the party when the row about secret loans broke out. Others are believed to have followed suit.

The Tories enjoyed several sizeable individual donations, including £530,000 from Lord Steinberg; £300,000 from the Lord Harris, who supported Mr Cameron; and £500,000 from the wine millionaire Roger Gabb.

Most of Labour's donations came from trade unions, although the party received an individual gift of £250,000 from William Bollinger, a hedge fund manager and regular donor.

But all parties remain under financial pressure and the Tories yesterday unveiled a fundraising drive, which aims to raise at least £3.2m from its members and broaden its financial base.

The Tories are asking 320,000 households to donate £10 to "help David Cameron get to No 10".

Donations to Tories hit nearly £9m in three months, G, 26.5.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,1783498,00.html

11am

Tories make gains

on bad night for Labour

Friday May 5, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Mark Oliver and agencies


Labour suffered disastrous results in last night's local elections in England and was today reeling from its worst share of the vote since the Falklands war in 1982.

By 8am this morning, Labour were on a projected 26% of the vote, behind the Tories on 40% and the Liberal Democrats on 27%.

Labour lost more than 200 councillors and relinquished control of 16 town halls, with the Tories benefiting most.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, was at Downing Street this morning reshuffling his cabinet. Among the changes to emerge so far the home secretary, Charles Clarke, has been sacked and the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, has been stripped of his wide-ranging departmental brief.

Jack Straw has left the Foreign Office to become leader of the house, replaced by Margaret Beckett as secretary of state and Geoff Hoon as minister for Europe.

The strong showing by the Conservative party - which gained more than 200 councillors - is the kind it would need if it has any hope of winning the next general election.

David Cameron had a successful first test at the ballot box as party leader and said he was happy after his party past the totemic 40% share of the vote.

A Sky News projection suggested that the Conservatives would have a 10-seat majority in the House of Commons if last night's figures were repeated in a general election.

Labour's losses were more than double the 100 council seats the party had indicated it could live with in the poll.

Some commentators noted, however, that Labour - rocked by recent scandals and the foreign offenders affair at the Home Office - had avoided a "total meltdown" at the ballot box.

There was, however, the inevitable speculation that the bad results would quicken the arrival of the chancellor, Gordon Brown, at No 10.

The Tories fared much better in London and the south than further north, and Mr Cameron failed to gain a toehold in cities such as Manchester and Newcastle. The Tories came an embarrassing fourth to the Greens in Liverpool.

Mr Cameron denied Labour claims that the results showed a north-south divide in the political landscape of England, with the Tories failing to break out of their traditional heartlands.

It was a mixed night for the Liberal Democrats and their new leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, with the party failing to capitalise as well as they might have hoped from Labour's woes. The Liberal Democrats made a net gain of 18 councillors and gained control of one council, Richmond upon Thames. The party also increased its majority in its flagship council, Newcastle upon Tyne.

There were some gains for the far-right British National party. By early this morning, the BNP had won from Labour at total of 11 of the 13 seats it had contested in Barking, east London.

The BNP also picked up council seats in Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent and Sandwell in the West Midlands but was being repelled in parts of the north, including Rotherham.

Half the UK electorate, approximately 23 million people, were entitled to vote yesterday in what was the largest electoral test for the parties ahead of the next general election, expected in 2009 or 2010.

A total of 4,360 council seats were fought for last night, including 144 English authorities. More than 40% of the seats being contested last night were in London, where all 32 of London boroughs had elections.

It was in London where Labour had its worst losses, being toppled in 10 town halls including Merton, Camden, Lewisham, Brent and Hammersmith and Fulham which went blue for the first time since 1968, with the Tories overturning a 12- seat Labour majority.

In Bexley, the Tories seized control from Labour, gaining 23 seats and leaving Mr Blair's party with a rump of just nine councillors.

Labour also suffered a drubbing in Tower Hamlets, with George Galloway's Respect party predicted to become the second largest party behind the Liberal Democrats in a bitter contest with fierce allegations of ballot rigging from all sides.

There were Tory wins in areas such as Shrewsbury and Atcham, Bassetlaw and Mole Valley. In Crawley the party took control from Labour for the first time in three decades. Ealing, where the Tories won last night, is considered a "bellweather" seat where the winning party traditionally goes on to win a general election.

    Tories make gains on bad night for Labour, G, 5.5.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localelections2006/story/0,,1768386,00.html

Labour's drubbing

- Party trailing by 12 per cent in polls

- Tories win key seats in capital

- Lib Dems make gains in the North

May 05, 2006
The Times 
By Philip Webster and Jill Sherman

TONY BLAIR will try to relaunch his battered Government today after suffering a drubbing in the local elections with heavy losses to the Conservatives in London.

He will reshuffle his Cabinet this morning in a desperate move to turn attention from what appeared to be his party’s worst local election showing since the late 1960s and his own worst night at the polls.

Despite performing poorly in the northern cities, failing to gain a foothold in Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool or Newcastle, the Tories compensated with big gains in London and other parts of the South. Overall the Conservatives were heading for a national share of about 39 per cent of the vote, with the Liberal Democrats and Labour close together on about 27 per cent.

It was a bad night for Labour, especially in the South, although not quite as bad as Labour had feared at the weekend, and Mr Blair will act today to defend his premiership and resist pressure on him to set a timetable for handing over to Gordon Brown.

Nick Brown, one of the Chancellor’s closest allies, said that urgent action was needed to reverse Labour’s “drift” and raised doubts over whether Mr Blair would be able to deliver it. “We can’t drift on,” he told the BBC. “It is pretty clear what has gone wrong and we need to address it.”

Asked if Mr Blair could do it, the former Agriculture Minister replied: “I don’t know, but he has got to try.”

After nearly two weeks of turmoil over the scandals of more than 1,000 foreign prisoners being released without deportation proceedings and John Prescott’s affair with a civil servant, Mr Blair will try to regain the initiative and prevent a fresh internal attack on his premiership.

As the results started coming in, however, it was clear that he was facing a fierce pincer movement from the main opposition parties. In an early London blow, the Conservatives were poised to take Hammmersmith and Fulham from Labour for the first time since 1968. Even worse for Labour, it was on course to lose overall control of its stronghold of Camden in North London. It lost control of Derby, Bury, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent and saw its majorities trimmed in other councils. The Liberal Democrats were picking up seats in the North but appeared to be failing to make the kind of forward leap that Sir Menzies Campbell, the new leader, was hoping for. Even so, they appeared to be on course to take Richmond, Surrey, from the Conservatives.

Labour said that the results showed a north-south divide in the political landscape, with Conservatives making progress in the capital but making little impact in the north of England. “We are not in any way disguising the fact that we are going to have a very bad night in London,” he said. “But the results, while not good, are substantially better in the north of England.”

The Conservatives seized control of Bassetlaw, in Nottinghamshire, and Crawley, in West Sussex, for the first time. They also took overall control of Hastings, East Sussex. The Liberal Democrats held Liverpool, despite losing three seats to Labour, and took control of St Albans and South Lakeland.

The Times has been told that Mr Prescott is to break his silence over the affair and take the blame for his party’s drubbing. He has been close to resigning since last week and it was still uncertain last night whether he had the will to carry on.

The future of Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, also remained in doubt last night as it emerged that a man facing trial on terror charges was not deported as a foreign criminal when he was released from a previous spell in jail. The man is in custody awaiting trial.

Mr Clarke has been told by Mr Blair to sort out the crisis and gave a progress report to the Commons on Thursday. Insiders said, however, that he could still be moved from the Home Office, although not sacked, in today’s changes. All ministers were told to be in London today for the reshuffle and many were travelling back overnight from their constituencies.

Shortly before voting ended last night Mr Blair was warned by aides that internal party polling showed Labour in third place at about 25 per cent of the vote. If borne out by all the results when they are in later today it would be Labour’s worst performance since 1968.

Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, is likely to get her long-expected promotion to the Cabinet this morning and Jacqui Smith, the Schools Minister, was being strongly tipped last night to join her.

Mr Prescott, who has been close to resigning several times since the disclosure of his affair with Tracey Temple, his assistant diary secretary, has told friends that he knows he has damaged his party. Ministers say that his indiscretions have been frequently raised as doorstep issues, as has the row over the release of foreign prisoners.

Mr Prescott’s apparent readiness to take the blame for Labour’s worst local election performance for decades may mean that he holds on to his job as Deputy Prime Minsiter and deputy Labour leader. Mr Blair has told him that he does not want him to go.

Friends of Mr Prescott told The Times last night, however, that he remained “brittle” and could still go when he sees the scale of last night’s setbacks. Insiders said that Mr Prescott’s “mea culpa” will come in a BBC interview on Sunday morning.

Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, who led Labour’s campaign in London, said that she had expected the party to do badly in the capital. “I think it is going to be very difficult for us,” she said. “I don’t think we are going to do very well. I think that is a great pity. We have had fantastically good candidates.”

Mr Blair is expected to shuffle his minsiters without dropping many. Alan Johnson was tipped to take over from Patricia Hewitt at Health and John Hutton to move from Work and Pensions to Education, with Ruth Kelly taking his job.

Labour's drubbing, Ts, 5.5.2006,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2166685,00.html

BNP rears its head

as Labour loses heartland seats

· Tories and Liberals make solid gains nationally
· Councillors accuse Hodge of raising far-right profile

Friday May 5, 2006
Guardian
Will Woodward, Hugh Muir and Steven Morris


Labour council seats in London and several heartland areas in England fell last night, with the far-right British National party making big gains in areas it targeted.

Results bore out defence secretary John Reid's prediction of a "very bad night for us", with Labour hurt by the revived popularity of the Conservatives under David Cameron and 10 days of dismal headlines over foreign prisoners, rebellious nurses and John Prescott's affair with his secretary.

"In the last fortnight we have seen a lot of good campaigning damaged pretty badly," Mr Reid said.

Labour lost control of Bolton, Derby, Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. In Stoke, the defeated council leader, Mick Salih, said he would leave the Labour party because it had become "a Tory party in disguise".

Conservative and Liberal Democrat gains were solid, though seldom spectacular. The Lib Dems said the Tories were failing to make inroads in the north. The Conservatives yet again won no council seats in Newcastle, Liverpool - where Mr Cameron sent the whole shadow cabinet - or Manchester, where he had held a glitzy spring conference. That will disappoint the modernisers who believe Mr Cameron can reach the parts other leaders could not. The party remained without any seats in Oxford, either.

But the Conservatives achieved their ambition of winning control of Coventry - not to do so would have been a disaster - and took control of Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire and Crawley in West Sussex, both for the first time. They also won Hastings in Kent. In Ipswich, the Conservatives became the largest party with 19 seats, but its gain of three seats was less dramatic than it would have hoped.

But the Conservatives were counterattacking by picking off seats from the Lib Dems in several boroughs in the south. They picked up five seats from the Lib Dems in David Cameron's home district of West Oxfordshire. The Tories also took six seats from the Lib Dems in Brentwood to strengthen their dominance there, and won two in Colchester.

Lord Razzall, the Lib Dem campaign chief, told Sky News the party was making up the ground it had lost during the messy coup against Charles Kennedy. "Our opinion poll ratings have gone back to more or less the level they were at the last general election ... we're back to three-party politics as usual." The party took St Albans and South Lakeland, both previously hung councils.

The BNP had made 15 gains by 2.30am, including three in Stoke-on-Trent, three in Sandwell, one in Solihull, and four in two wards in Barking and Dagenham.

Labour activists accused the employment minister, Margaret Hodge, MP for Barking, of generating hundreds of extra votes for the BNP with her "naive" public comments about the popularity of the far-right party. The Guardian has learned that angry members of the local Labour party have privately begun discussing the possibility of a move to try to deselect the Blairite minister.

They are furious about her comments last month claiming that eight out of 10 voters in her constituency were thinking of voting BNP. Party organisers say the comments were ill-judged and disastrously timed. "They were little more than an advertisement for the BNP," said one. "If I were Nick Griffin and I had a baby girl, I would be calling it Margaret."

Even before the result was known, a senior official publicly broke ranks to castigate the MP. Liam Smith, the Labour agent for Barking and Dagenham, said: "She has given the BNP the best PR they have had in years. They were in fact running quite a limited campaign but she said what she said and the BNP campaign took off.

"As someone who is a minister and comes from a local government background she should have known better. There have got to be questions asked and the people responsible must be held to account."

The divisions were exacerbated by comments from the BNP itself. Richard Barnbrook, one of the far-right candidates and the BNP's London spokesman, said: "If I had paid her a million pounds I couldn't have asked her to do more."

There were reports from polling stations of voters writing the letters BNP on ballot forms where no BNP candidate was listed. Some apparently screwed up their ballot papers in disgust.

Mr Smith said a key issue distorted and exploited by the BNP was housing. "Social housing is a huge issue across London and a huge issue here and we simply have to address it. There are huge social issues we have to deal with and housing is the main one. That is what the BNP are tapping into."

In Bristol, the Greens pipped Labour by seven votes in Southville ward to take their first seat on the city council. The Lib Dems picked up just one seat, a disappointment for them, and the council stayed under no overall control. Labour lost four seats.

The Greens also picked up one seat in Sheffield and one in Stroud. "We look set to do very well across the country," said the party's principal speaker, Caroline Lucas, predicting a handful of gains in Norwich alone. The Greens were aiming to increase their seats from 72 to three figures nationally.

In Oxford, Labour lost a seat to the Independent Working Class Association.

    BNP rears its head as Labour loses heartland seats, G, 5.5.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localelections2006/story/0,,1768182,00.html

BNP 'needs 5% swing

to win 70 council seats'

· White working class losing faith in Labour, says MP
· Party strongest in London, Yorkshire and Lancashire

Monday April 17, 2006
Guardian
Vikram Dodd and Patrick Wintour

The British National party is within a 5% swing of winning 70 council seats, according to analysis by the anti-fascist group Searchlight. The group says the BNP is posing its biggest electoral threat ever, as it seeks to boost the ranks of its 20 elected councillors and four parish councillors.

News of the danger of a mini-electoral breakthrough for the BNP comes after the employment minister, Margaret Hodge, warned that up to eight out of 10 white working class voters in her east London constituency are tempted to vote for the far right party.

Ms Hodge said the level of white people considering voting BNP in her Barking seat was partly because they believe Labour is failing to address their concerns. The BNP is standing in seven of the 17 wards in Barking and Searchlight predicts it will get between 20-30% of the vote. Nick Lowles, director of research for the group, said: "They are posing a much bigger electoral threat than they have."

The BNP is within a 3% swing of adding 40 councillors to its ranks, and in most of its target areas it is challenging Labour. The areas where it is expected to perform strongly include Barking and Epping Forest in east London, Sandwell in the Midlands, Dewsbury and Calderdale in Yorkshire, and Burnley in Lancashire.

Mr Lowles said the BNP was increasing its anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of the July 7 bombings and the Danish cartoon row. The party was also benefiting from disillusionment among Labour voters, and the Tories' apparent shift centrewards, which had left a gap on the right.

But Mr Lowles said claims by Ms Hodge that eight out of 10 people in Barking were considering voting BNP were "ludicrous".

Ms Hodge blamed politicians for failing to address issues on which racism breeds. In an interview in the Sunday Telegraph, she said that for the first time white working class people were no longer ashamed to say they will vote BNP. "When I knock on doors I say to people 'Are you tempted to vote BNP?' and many, many, many - eight out of 10 of the white families - say yes." she said. "That's something we have never seen before, in all my years, even when people voted BNP they used to be ashamed to vote BNP. Now they are not."

The BNP secured 16.9% of the vote in Barking in the 2005 general election. In neighbouring Dagenham, its vote was 9%.

Its support in the area is built in part on blatant lies about race. In Barking the BNP has run a campaign claiming African new arrivals to the area are being handed £50,000 by the council to buy houses.

The "Africans for Essex" campaign has played on local anger at a shortage of council housing, said Mr Lowles.

The timing of Ms Hodge's warnings may anger some colleagues in the runup to the May polling day. In remarks that the BNP will not be slow to recycle on the doorstep, Ms Hodge told the Sunday Telegraph: "The Labour party hasn't talked to these people ... Part of the reason they switch to BNP is they feel no one else is listening to them."

Ms Hodge said many families in her constituency were angry at the lack of available housing since immigrants began arriving in the area and after asylum seekers had been housed there by other London councils.

    BNP 'needs 5% swing to win 70 council seats', G, 17.4.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,,1755286,00.html

BNP in turmoil

as members row

about 'ethnic' candidate

Selection of Sharif Gawad
provokes uproar among 'whites-only' hardcore

Saturday April 8, 2006
Guardian
Michael White and Martin Wainwright

The British National party was riven last night over its decision to select the grandson of an asylum seeker to fight a seat in next month's local elections.
Sharif Abdel Gawad, whom the BNP describes as a "totally assimilated Greek-Armenian", was chosen to stand in a Bradford ward as part of the party's biggest ever electoral push.

The decision has provoked a backlash among BNP hardliners who described Mr Gawad as an "ethnic" who should be barred from the party on race grounds. One regional organiser responsible for the candidate's selection is thought to be under pressure to resign. Another regional organiser is leading the dissent against the party leadership, saying it had betrayed the members and would confuse voters.

On online noticeboards used by BNP supporters, scores of contributors denounced Mr Gawad's selection. They said the BNP should remain an all-white party and the decision to appoint him was taken over the heads of rank and file members.

Yesterday the BNP admitted it had received a number of calls from angry members and that a hardcore had refused to accept Mr Gawad's candidacy on race grounds "even when it was explained that he was not a Pakistani Muslim".

BNP spokesman Phil Edwards said those members who refused to accept the candidacy had no place in the party.

The rift follows a dispute in 2004 when the party leader, Nick Griffin, tried to force through rule changes allowing non-white people to join the BNP. After widespread opposition from members, the leadership was forced to abandon the proposals.

The BNP says Mr Gawad was named after the actor Omar Sharif because his mother was a fan, and that his grandfather was an Armenian Christian who fled to Britain as a refugee.

But opposition to his selection has filled extremist websites. "It won't deter me from doing what's needed for the election, but we have been let down," read a posting on the Stormfront bulletin board.

"The BNP is the last bastion of hope for our people, they too have been let down if just anyone is allowed to join. Ethnics have every single opportunity afforded them, and now they even get to join the BNP. Just like immigration into this country, we were not consulted. When an ethnic wants to join, it should go to a membership vote. We're the ones who do all the work, we should have a say."

Another read: "No one is listening, and the worst calls I've had today are demanding a leadership challenge."

Several postings said a senior Yorkshire figure had been forced to resign over the issue, a claim the BNP denied last night.

Nick Lowles, from the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, said the row, which came as the BNP announced it is to field a record 357 candidates on May 4, went way beyond the usual opposition within the party. "The modernisers are trying to make the party seem more acceptable, more mainstream but for most BNP members race is the bottom line, it is a party for white people and that's that."

In 2004 the BNP fielded 313 candidates and received around 800,000 votes. Next month it aims to double its current tally of 20 elected councillors and four parish councillors.

MPs and activists say it is posing a serious threat in up to 80 wards, many of them in five areas in Yorkshire, the Midlands and east London where immigration issues mingle with those of industrial decline.

According to Dagenham's Labour MP, Jon Cruddas - a former adviser to Tony Blair - the BNP is trying to appeal to working-class Labour voters who who feel disenfranchised by New Labour's "middle Britain" strategy, as well as rightwingers.

In industrial areas where coal, steel, textiles or pottery jobs have gone - or shrunk in the case of Dagenham's once-mighty Ford car plant in which 3,000 now work instead of 25,000 - the BNP issues leaflets with slogans such as "Shut Down by the Tories, Abandoned by Labour, Only the BNP Will Stand Up for British Workers". The leaflets depict the BNP as untainted by old, rotten political ways, willing to stand up for ordinary people and say what they think.

Nick Cass, a former Yorkshire and England squash player who is now the BNP's full-time Yorkshire organiser, echoed the theme: "We need a few scallies on the council who'll say, 'I'm not having this.'"

But opponents say the BNP's record as effective councillors is poor, although another form of record has tarnished some prominent members. In each of the last two years, a candidate in the Kirklees area has been convicted of drug offences.

Labour says it is taking the BNP threat seriously. Dudley North MP Ian Austin, who faces BNP candidates in five of his seven constituency wards, has started organising trips to Auschwitz for students. An anti-racist festival is planned for April 30.

Counter-measures including heavy leafleting and canvassing have also proved effective in Dagenham. Here the BNP won a ward from Labour in a byelection in 2004 with 52% of the vote, campaigning on the shortage of affordable housing and an "Africans for Essex" claim - part of what Searchlight calls the Big Lie technique - that foreigners were being subsidised to move in. Labour later regained the seat.

Keighley, where Mr Griffin did badly at the general election, saw a further BNP setback last month when it lost the safest of its four seats on Bradford council to an outraged local mother, Angela Sinfield. She stood for Labour after her campaign against the grooming of young girls for prostitution, including her own daughter, was hijacked by the BNP, which portrayed the pimping, wrongly, as organised by Asian gangs.

    BNP in turmoil as members row about 'ethnic' candidate, G, 8.4.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,,1749555,00.html

5.30pm update

Brown backs '90-95%' of Turner report

Tuesday April 4, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Tempest and Oliver King

The chancellor, Gordon Brown, tonight performed a climbdown, accepting "90-95%" of Lord Turner's report into the future of UK pensions despite previously calling it unaffordable.

His denied making a U-turn, but his comments come ahead tomorrow's joint press conference with the prime minister to launch Labour's local election campaign launch.

Mr Brown gave a series of unexpected TV interviews to say he accepted the proposals "very much in the spirit of New Labour" - seemingly avoiding a showdown with Tony Blair over the issue.

The issue of the restoring the pensions link with earnings - broken by Mrs Thatcher - as opposed to the chancellor's preferred means testing for the poorest pensioners had appeared set to be the new battleground between Number 10 and Number 11.

But tonight Mr Brown told the BBC: "I think we are actually 90% to 95% of the way there with Turner.

"The issue which has still to be resolved - affordability - is one on which Tony Blair and I are absolutely at one. We know that the country looks to us to manage the public finances in a prudent way."

He said he had no objection in principle to Lord Turner's proposal to increase the state pension in line with earnings, adding that in practice it was already rising by more than the level of inflation. But he said: "The question is the £8bn cost ... I have always sought to avoid a tax consequence."

He added: "Tony Blair and I are totally agreed on this, that the affordability issue will be addressed."

Mr Brown told Sky news the Turner report was "very much in the spirit of New Labour, in encouraging people to save as much as they can."

Lord Turner's final pensions report, delivered this morning, was a response to the industry and government reactions to his original plan last November.

In it he defended all four major aspects of the plan - a full state pension linked to earnings, with the retirement age raised to 68 by 2050, and a national automatic pensions savings scheme with contributions from employers.

Mr Brown and the Treasury had been lukewarm about Lord Turner's proposals, preferring to keep the chancellor's favoured plan of means testing for poorer pensioners.

Lord Turner said that he did not believe there was any possibility of the government kicking the issue of pensions reform into the "long grass", but he refused to be drawn on speculation that Mr Brown and the Treasury opposed the scheme.

"It is not surprising that the Treasury is most concerned about the public spending impact - that is its role."

In a statement to go with the 45-page report, Lord Turner said: "If the state pension system is not reformed in a way which limits the spread of means testing, the success of the proposed new system of private pension saving will be undermined."

Defending his original conclusions, Lord Turner said the affordability of the commission's reform plans were "not significantly higher" than the government's current pension spending plans.

The commission's proposals would lead to the percentage of GDP spent on pensions rising by 1.5% between now and 2050, from 6.2% today to 7.5% to 8% by 2050 depending on the age at which people could start drawing their state pension.

He said this was not significantly higher than the expenditure suggested by the Treasury, but would still carry significant implications for either tax or national insurance contribution rates, or for other categories of public expenditure.

He said: "The government now faces the difficult challenge of deciding how far and how fast it can move towards the reform of the state pension system we proposed, in the light of other claims on public expenditure."

In its final report, which responds to the issues raised about its proposed reforms, the commission said its proposals had received wide consensus.

It added that criticism had come almost entirely from experts and interest groups who believed it should have suggested more radical measures to reduce means testing, even at the expense of much higher increases in public expenditure.

The government is due to respond to the commission's report in a white paper which is due to be published this spring.

Earlier Lord Turner, a former director-general of the CBI, told BBC Breakfast the Treasury was "playing its legitimate role" in questioning the proposed reforms.

He said: "People accept that the state pension age is going to have to go up. But there is also a belief that the state pension has to become more generous than it would otherwise be at that later age.

"The issue is how far and how fast can one go down that road? That is where the debate has broken out within government, and in particular the Treasury is playing its legitimate role of saying Hang on, there's a lot of other people who want other elements."

In response to Lord Turner's report the Tory leader, David Cameron, identified the chancellor's desire to maintain means testing as a block to progress.

"Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are fighting over who should run the country while there are big issues like pensions that need to be dealt with. We need a strong basic state pension linked to earnings and growing over time to get people off the means test in this country," he said.

    Brown backs '90-95%' of Turner report, G, 4.4.2006, http://money.guardian.co.uk/turnerreport/story/0,,1746572,00.html

5pm

Tories name some lenders,

and pay back others

Friday March 31, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Hélène Mulholland and Matthew Tempest

The Conservatives today revealed the names of 13 wealthy backers who had lent the party nearly £16m - but repaid a further £5m in order to preserve the anonymity of other lenders.

The disclosure came following demands from the Electoral Commission that the party hand over all contract details of the loans or face court action.

The party's lawyers insisted that all loans were made on commercial terms, although the mystery of the remaining benefactors is unlikely to allow the party to draw the line under the issue.

As already known, one lender, Bob Edminston, was nominated for a peerage by former leader Michael Howard. He converted his £2m loan into a donation, and his name was already in the public domain.

The Tories had initially refused to release the list, claiming that lenders had been promised confidentiality. The party's chairman, Francis Maude, confirmed today that the party had contacted all those who made loans prior to compiling the list.

The Tories have been under increasing pressure to reveal the names after Labour unveiled its lenders in the wake of the "loans for peerages" scandal.

Among the 13 listed, the biggest lenders are former party treasurer and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft (£3.6m) and Scottish philanthropist Lord Laidlaw (£3.5m).

The others were: party treasurer Henry Angest (£550,000); Dame Vivien Duffield (£250,000); deputy treasurer Johan Eliasch (£2.6m); former treasurer Alan Lewis (£100,000); Cringle Corporation Ltd (£450,000): Conservative councillor Graham Facks-Martin (£50,000); Michael Hintze (£2.5m); former treasurer Victoria, Lady de Rothschild (£1m); Raymond Richards (deceased) (£1m); former treasurer Lord Steinberg (£250,000); and Charles Wigoder (£100,000).

But the Electoral Commission - the independent watchdog which examine elections and party spending - urged the Tories to say exactly what they meant by "commercial terms".

A spokesman said: "We are writing to the treasurers of the parties today asking them to define what they mean by 'commercial terms' and how they have come to the conclusion that these are on commercial terms."

Scotland Yard said yesterday that the Conservatives are also to be investigated over the " loans for lordships" scandal and Jonathan Marland, the party treasurer, would receive a letter asking for information.

As well as the declared loans the party has also borrowed almost £16m from a bank to purchase the freehold of its former headquarters in Smith Square, Westminster.

The Conservatives stood by their earlier decision not to reveal lenders' names without their permission.

Mr Maude said in a statement today: "We believe it would have been wrong for us to reveal the identities of lenders without their permission. So we have been contacting lenders to seek their permission for us to make their names public. Today we are publishing a complete list of the individuals and organisations with whom we have loan arrangements, together with the amounts.

"In the last few weeks a number of lenders have turned their loans into donations, and their names will appear in the relevant returns to the Electoral Commission. We have also repaid around £5m to lenders who did not wish their names to be disclosed."

    Tories name some lenders, and pay back others, G, 31.3.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,1744319,00.html

9.15am

Strike hits key services across UK

Tuesday March 28, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

The biggest strike in the UK for decades began today with up to 1.5 million local authority workers said to be "solidly" backing industrial action in a row over pensions.

Thousands of schools were expected to be closed throughout the day and public services such as burials, refuse collection and the courts were expected to be disrupted in some areas.

The 24-hour stoppage is being organised by a group of unions. Unison, the biggest of those involved, said early indications were that workers were solidly supporting the action.

The unions are protesting at plans to scrap a so-called "rule of 85" which allows council staff to retire at 60 if their age and length of service adds up to 85 years.

Some organisers claimed that it was the biggest strike since the general strike in 1926; others said it was the largest industrial action since the "winter of discontent" in the 1970s, which helped bring down the Labour government.

Councils have admitted the strike will have "a major impact".

The strike, which began at midnight, was causing travel chaos for thousands of motorists in some parts of the country this morning, with the Mersey Tunnels in Liverpool and the Metro railway on Tyneside closed.

The Mersey Tunnels, which link Liverpool to the Wirral, normally take 80,000 cars a day but only remained open for emergency vehicles. The Mersey ferries were also closed as a result of today's walkout.

The Metro rail system on Tyneside was shut and the Tyne Tunnel crossing, which normally carries thousands of cars and lorries during the morning rush hour, was also closed.

Multistorey car parks in the heart of Newcastle did not open and the city's traffic wardens joined the strike.

Andrew Sugden, policy director of the North East Chamber of Commerce, said: "It is the ordinary man and woman on the street who will be hit hardest. They face transport havoc trying to get to work."

Unison's north east regional organiser, Charlie Syme, said the strike would cause major disruption, adding: "This is not what we want to see but unfortunately we have no other way of bringing it to the attention of the public."

In Liverpool, 120 schools are shut for the day, along with 24 libraries and 15 leisure centres. Two road tunnels under the Mersey are shut for 24 hours from last night.

In Shrewsbury, burials and cremations have been suspended for the day alongside services such as refuse collection, according to the Shrewsbury and Atcham borough council chief executive, Robin Hooper.

"The reality is that we will have probably less than 10% of our workforce," he said. "Over the next few weeks this industrial action is set to continue until a solution has been reached."

Councils hope to ensure social services are not affected, though some, such as Derbyshire, say only "limited home help" will be available for the day.

In London, schools, libraries and some crematoriums are likely to close, as will the Tower of London. Thames Barrier staff will walk out, but emergency cover will be maintained.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, will tour picket lines in London today before joining a rally in Westminster alongside leaders of several other unions involved in the dispute.

He said today that the stance of the government and the Local Government Association over the pensions of council workers was "immoral".

Mr Prentis said the government had reached a deal last year with millions of civil servants, teachers and health workers allowing them to retire at 60.

"All we are asking for is the same kind of protection for council workers," said Mr Prentis.

The union clashed with the LGA over the cost of changing the pension scheme after the employers claimed that the unions' stance would add at least 2% a year to every council taxpayer's bill.

Mr Prentis accused the association of trying to "mislead" the public, adding: "This is yet another example of employers trying to disguise their own financial mismanagement.

"This immoral behaviour from employers is the very reason our members are angry and frustrated. They are not militant as a rule but they have no choice other than to strike."

The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is understood to be supporting the strike and will stay away from City Hall, where a picket will be established.

    Strike hits key services across UK, G, 28.3.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/comment/0,,1741235,00.html

A history of sleaze

Labour v Tories

Monday March 20, 2006
Guardian

Labour:

Bernie Ecclestone

The government faced 'cash for access' accusations when it was alleged the formula one magnate gave a £1m donation to the party in return for the sport being exempted from the ban on tobacco advertising. The cash was later returned

Peter Mandelson

The former trade secretary resigned twice from the cabinet, initially over allegations he misled the Britannia Building Society in his mortgage application by not disclosing he had a £373,000 loan from former Labour minister Geoffrey Robinson. The second time was over the Hinduja passport affair

David Blunkett

The former home secretary also resigned twice. The first time followed reports that a visa application for his lover's nanny had been speeded up. He resigned again over allegations he had not revealed his financial involvement with a private DNA testing company

Tessa Jowell

She has survived her husband's entanglement with the Italian prime minister and multi-millionaire businessman Silvio Berlusconi

Conservatives:

Jonathan Aitken

The former defence procurement minister lied over who paid for a stay at the Ritz Hotel in Paris and ended up in jail for perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice

Dame Shirley Porter

The former Tory leader of Westminster council was ordered to pay a surcharge of £27m for her part in the "council home sales for votes" scandal of the 1980s. The law lords said attempts to gain political support by selling off council homes in marginal wards to potential Tory voters was "a deliberate, blatant and dishonest misuse of public power"

Jeffrey Archer

The former deputy party chairman resigned in 1986 after allegations that he had given money to a prostitute. He won his libel case but was later expelled by the party after claims that he had invented an alibi. He was jailed for perjury

Neil Hamilton

The former corporate affairs minister's career ended in disgrace after he faced accusations he had accepted cash from Harrods' owner Mohamed Al Fayed in exchange for asking parliamentary questions

    A history of sleaze, G, 20.3.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1734847,00.html

1pm update

Labour received £14m in secret loans

Friday March 17, 2006
Agencies
Guardian Unlimited

Downing Street today announced that a former Whitehall mandarin has been appointed to look into the future of party funding as Labour confirmed it had received almost £14m in secret loans before last year's election.

Sir Hayden Phillips, a former permanent secretary at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, will look into the future of party funding in liaison with the political parties, following Mr Blair's promise to review existing arrangements.

The prime minister's official spokesman said his terms of reference would be announced next week and he was expected to bring forward proposals in a "reasonably short period of time".

"The prime minister has always said that it is better and more likely to be acceptable to the public if we progress this matter on the basis of consensus," the spokesman said.

The appointment comes after Labour officials confirmed that the party had received £13,950,000 in commercial loans.

"These loans were taken out in full compliance with the rules of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act," a Labour spokesman said.

"As set out in our statement yesterday, the national executive committee officers will next week propose that all future commercial loans agreed by the party be declared publicly, including their sources. The loans will be recorded in our annual accounts 2006 [covering January to December 2005] in the usual way. These accounts will be published in June."

The prime minister, Tony Blair, confirmed yesterday that he was aware of the secret loans, which circumvented the need to name the lenders on the political donations list, as he vowed to tighten up the rules for on party funding, including a possible cap on the level of party donations.

The controversy over secret loans first emerged after three millionaire donors were nominated by the prime minister for political seats in the House of Lords

Their appointment has so far been stalled by the independent appointments commission that vets applications. Two have since asked for their names to be withdrawn from consideration.

As well as an overhaul of party funding, Mr Blair also signalled a string of changes ministers' private interests and the honours system. The Conservatives came on board last night by promising to declare all loans in the future.

The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, joined the fray over "cash for peerages" earlier today as she dismissed the suggestion that financial party backers should not receive political seats in the House of Lords.

Those people who fund political parties should be seen as "doing a public service for our democracy", not treated with suspicion and disdain, said the health secretary.

"There is no evidence at all for this outrageous suggestion that people have been buying peerages or have been offered peerages for sale."

Labour's reforms have made Britain's political culture "one of the most transparent and honest systems of political party finance in the developed world," Ms Hewitt insisted.

"There is now more for us to do, not only in the Labour party ... but right across the political system, so that everybody agrees on the best way forward, which I believe has to do with electing the House of Lords on the one hand and having the combination of state funding and stricter controls on individual donations and on party campaign spending," she said.

The affair has raised the hackles of many within the party. Labour's former deputy leader Lord Hattersley last night said he was "horrified" by the sums taken by the party in loans without the knowledge of its treasurer, Jack Dromey.

"It all demonstrates that the Labour party leadership is too obsessed with the world of money. The Labour party should not behave in this way," he told BBC2's Newsnight.

"Labour party supporters will be horrified, and quite rightly so."

Under Electoral Commission rules, loans at commercial rates of interest do not have to be declared by political parties, while straightforward donations do.

The commission yesterday issued a statement urging all parties to declare loans, which prompted promises from both Labour and the Tories that they would.

An internal investigation into the "cash for peerages' affair was launched on Wednesday by Mr Dromey, who revealed he had been "kept in the dark" about the secret loans.

    Labour received £14m in secret loans, G, 17.3.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,,1733351,00.html

Labour's secret loan operation

generated more than £10m

· Blair concedes mistake over not telling treasurer
· Role of PM to be curbed in nomination of honours

Friday March 17, 2006
Guardian
Patrick Wintour, political editor


Labour may have gathered as much as £10m in secret loans before the election, more than double the figure revealed so far, one of the party's most senior party fundraisers admitted yesterday.

He said Labour had taken the money before the election after its bankers were unwilling to give the party a larger overdraft.

At one of his most difficult monthly press conferences, the prime minister conceded he had made a mistake in not telling the Labour party treasurer, Jack Dromey, about the loans. He said he took personal responsibility, but was unable to explain the reason for leaving Mr Dromey out of the loop.

Tony Blair also admitted that he had not told the Lords appointments scrutiny committee that three of his candidates for working Labour peerages had given the party loans.

Faced by accusations that he was running a parallel party within the party, Mr Blair yesterday rushed forward a raft of reforms, including one that will limit the role of the prime minister in the nomination of honours, such as knighthoods and OBEs, but still retain the right to appoint Labour working peers until wider reforms for the Lords are agreed.

He said that an independent figure would seek to create a consensus between the parties on greater state funding of political parties, including a cap on the level of donations. The move might limit the influence of the trade unions in the Labour party. He would also strengthen the independent monitoring of the ministerial code, in the wake of the controversy surrounding the culture secretary Tessa Jowell. In future, so long as there was a cross-party consensus, he would also support commercial loans being made declarable in the same way as gifts.

Mr Dromey issued a statement late on Wednesday revealing he had been kept in the dark about the loans, and accusing Downing Street of treating elected party officials with contempt.

The deputy prime minister, John Prescott, and the party chairman, Ian McCartney, had met Mr Dromey only hours earlier. They believed they had an agreement that he would not discuss the issue further until the party's national executive met on Tuesday.

But Mr Dromey's allies said he went public because he felt he had not received the right assurances at the meeting. They stressed he was not accusing Mr Blair of breaking the law or offering peerages for cash.

A senior Blairite returned fire, accusing Mr Dromey of "trying to put the final knife into the heart of Tony Blair on behalf of Gordon Brown".

There is no evidence that Mr Brown or his allies were involved in any plot to undermine Mr Blair.

The party's chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, is known to be furious with Mr Dromey, pointing out that he has not met the union official since he took on the role of party treasurer. "If he [Dromey] did not know, it is because he did not ask," said one senior party figure.

Mr Levy's friends claimed that Mr Dromey's denunciation of Mr Blair was "irrational and illogical".

Downing Street conceded that the party's fundraising committee, set up by the then Labour chairman Charles Clarke in 2002, had not been told about the loans or their source since they were not deemed gifts.

The committee had been set up following a gift from Richard Desmond, the owner of Express Newspapers.

The Tories fell in with Labour, and the recommendation of the Electoral Commission, by saying that they would in future declare all loans.

Labour's secret loan operation generated more than £10m, G, 17.3.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,,1733040,00.html