Did Channel 4 break the law?

It was reported last night on several blogs including Iain Dale here, and Conservative Home here, that CCHQ has foiled an attempt by Channel 4 to infiltrate a Conservative fundraising organisation. It is alleged that a production assistant for the Dispatches programme called Jenny Williams attempted to join, and made a donation to the party, but that Conservative officials became aware that something funny was going on.


Both blogs quote an official Conservative statement that

"It is not acceptable for journalists to masquerade as a member of the Conservative Party - or any Party for that matter - in a covert, self-appointed role to “check” compliance procedures. It is of particular concern that as part of this subterfuge, Channel 4 deliberately obscured the source of Party donations so we were misled into believing it was Miss Williams who made the donations, when it was not."

The party has a letter of apology from Ms Williams which apparently includes the following statement

"I write to confirm that the donation of the sum of £334 made in two payments on the 4th August 2008, and the 1st September 2008 were made by me but the true donor was Channel Four Television."



When it became clear that the money had been given under false pretences the Conservative party did not apply it to party funds, but instead donated it to the Welsh House Farm Project, a community centre in Birmingham.



It is my understanding of the campaign finance laws passed by the present government that giving money to a political party through surrogates or knowingly making a false declaration about where money donated to a political party has come from is now illegal. Certainly the police investigated a recent case when it was alleged that money was given to the Labour party through surrogates.



Did Channel 4 or Ms Williams break the law ? It will be interesting to see whether the electoral commission or the police follow this up.

Comments

Anonymous said…
What about Lord Ashcroft's donations? you'awfully quiet about those.
6:25 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
On the contrary. Lord Ashcroft's donations are entirely legal and above board, and have all been declared to the electoral commission.

Yes, my campaign has had some support from the target seats campaign chaired by Lord Ashcroft and I am grateful for it - though in my opinion the contribution made by Michael Ashcroft to the Conservative party as a highly skilled organiser who has instilled a sense of discipline into the party's target seats campaign has been of even greater value to the party than the money he has given.

Incidentally, not all of the money in the target seats fund comes from Michael Ashcroft personally but all of it is properly and legally declared.

I would add that the support I have had from the target seats fund is significantly less than the amount of taxpayers money available to my Labour opponent as a so-called "communications allowance." What Lord Ashcroft has done is level the playing field.
8:28 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the...
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more