Private club channels cash for 2015 Tory election war chest

United and Cecil Club ups donations to Tory party constituencies, fuelling debate about lack of transparency



An obscure private club registered at a stables in the home counties is emerging as a key financial weapon in the Tories' battle to win the next election, fuelling a growing row over the lack of transparency in political donations.

An investigation for the Observer, carried out by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, indicates that the United and Cecil Club is playing a crucial role in funnelling cash from often unidentifiable donors to Tory party constituencies. The club has been used to raise funds for the Tories for several years, but its cash is now being deployed far more strategically ahead of the 2015 election.

Since the last election, the organisation has ploughed almost £285,000 into the constituencies – nearly double the amount it has channelled to Tory party headquarters. In the first quarter of this year alone, the U&C has given almost as much to the Tory party's local accounting units as it did in the whole of last year – with most of the cash targeted at key swing seats.

Despite its increasingly important role, very little is known about the club's activities, other than its staging of grand dinners. There is no requirement for the identities of donors who give under £7,500 to be disclosed. An address in Iver, a village in Buckinghamshire, has been given to the Electoral Commission. However, in the parliamentary register it lists its address as that belonging to a riding school in Berkshire which is run by Tim Lord. Lord is a former chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association. He confirmed to the Bureau that he is the honorary secretary of the U&C.

When asked by the Bureau and the Observer to supply further details about the U&C, Lord declined to elaborate. "We are a club, we have our objective and we comply with the law," he said.

The Tories have been criticised before for taking money from obscure organisations that mask the identity of their donors. The Midlands Industrial Council, an organisation based in a small Lincolnshire village, was for years used to channel money to the party from anonymous wealthy businessmen until it released their names in 2006. The identities of those behind the U&C remain largely opaque.

Christopher Fenwick, a member of the wealthy retail family which has an estimated fortune of £500m, was until recently a deputy chairman of the organisation, Lord confirmed.

Fenwick sponsored a table at last week's Tory party fundraiser at the Hurlingham Club in south-west London. He also paid for two tables at last year's Conservative fundraiser at Old Billingsgate market where, according to the guest plan, invitees included U&C chairman Brooks Newmark MP and Anne-Marie Trevelyan, a Tory hopeful who is bidding to win the marginal seat of Berwick-on-Tweed, currently held by the Lib Dems.

"The Tories have learned the language of modern government," said Tamasin Cave of Spinwatch, who leads the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency coalition. "They talk about transparency and fairness, but the reality is they are continuing with an antiquated way of doing things, like secret donor clubs."

A Tory spokesman said: "All donations to the Conservative party are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with Electoral Commission rules."

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/05/tory-donors-united-and-cecil-club-2015-war-chest

Yea Right!

Union money is itemised and every penny declared. This is yet another in a long line of ways of getting money that has 'come to light'. If it was transparent, how come nobody knew about it before and they had gone to great lengths to disguise it.