Anneliese Dodds, Labour's candidate for Reading East, has backed demands from the Labour Party's General Secretary, Ray Collins, that the Electoral Commission speed up enquiries into Lord Ashcroft's Bearwood Corporate Services. Ashcroft's company has given millions to the Conservative Party, including just under £10,000 to the Reading East constituency.
The law says that companies may make political donations but only if they are actually "trading" in the UK, and since October 2008 the Electoral Commission has been investigating whether Bearwood Corporate Services is doing so. If not, then the Tories will have to repay equivalent funds to the Treasury.
In his letter to Electoral Commission Chief Executive Peter Wardle, Ray Collins says the British people will want to see the results of the investigation before they vote in the General Election. "As you are aware," he says, "the next general election will be a crucial one for our country. Lord Ashcroft is not only the major Conservative Party donor, funding a large number of their key seats, he is also running the Conservative marginal seats campaign. In this respect, Lord Ashcroft is already a key figure in determining the outcome of the next general election."
Anneliese Dodds adds: "It is surely wrong for companies registered in the UK to be used to siphon funds from overseas into British political parties. Surely it is not difficult for a company to prove that it is trading in the UK- yet Bearwood seems to have been unable, so far, to prove this to the Electoral Commission. We need this uncertainty removed before the General Election. Without this, suspicions may remain about exactly how the Conservatives' election campaigns in seats like Reading East are being funded."
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