Political donations: Secretive groups have funnelled £7.35m to Tory politicians

People who give money to politicians are supposed to put their name to their donation. That's so that the money that flows into politics can be tracked. But donors to the Tory party have been making use of a loophole for clubs and societies to funnel anonymous money into parliament.

Electoral Commission data on cash donations received by politicians and parties published yesterday has shed light on Tory funding practices in the run up to the elections.

By law, individuals who donate more than £1,500 to an MP or party have to reveal their identity. However the law does allow for anonymous donations from “unincorporated associations”, in other words an organisation, such as a members' or sports club which does not make profit and therefore does not need to pay tax or be registered.

The Tories are exploiting this loophole in the law by creating weirdly named associations like the "No Balls Ball" who generously donated at least £65k to Tory candidates in the last year.

For every £11 the Tory Party, its candidates or its special interest groups - such as the Conservative Christian Fellowship - received, £1 was coming from one of these organisations.

Since 2010 unincorporated associations have donated £7.35m to Tory politicians and to the party

While the "No Balls Ball" group was the most generous cash donor to MPs and candidates in the last 12 months, other unincorporated associations have also been getting busy.

Tories encourage this trick - the official advice from Tory HQ is to not name the secretive clubs and associations after a specific candidate, or after the Conservatives.

The United and Cecil Club has under different disguises (one is the United and Cecil Club of Thornley North, the other the United & Cecil Club of Beckfield) donated a total of £785k in the last five years.

One Magna Carta Club has donated a total on £97,000 on seven separate occasions.

Most of the funding - £3.9m in the last five years - comes from the National Conservative Draws Society, a weekly draw for Conservative members to fundraise for marginal seats. This system is still based on anonymity.

"The National Conservative Draws Association is a weekly lottery played by over 20,000 people paying 1 pound a week and is fully regulated by the Gambling Commission – Labour and the Liberal Democrats operate similar lotteries," a Conservative spokesman told Ampp3d.

"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. This applies to unincorporated associations. Any suggestion of impropriety by the party is malicious and defamatory and will be treated as such."
Out of all donations in the past year, the largest ones came from this one anonymous Tory group

The "No Balls Ball" donated £32,516 cash to Conservative candidate Mr David Warburton, standing in the marginal seat of Somerset and Frome, which is currently held by a Liberal Democrat.

A second £32,516 cash donation was made in July last year to Conservative candidate James Heappey standing in another Lib Dem marginal seat, that of Wells in Somerset constituency currently held by a Liberal Democrat MP.

In the last year the United & Cecil Clubs have focussed their attention on marginal constituencies by funnelling money to Stockton South MP James Wharton (£14K), Newton Abbot MP Anne Marie Morris (£5K) and others.

The Minister of defence Anna Soubry has also benefited from donations of £5,000 from an unincorporated association called Women2Win.
Other parties also get donations from Unincorporated Associations - but there's one crucial difference

The Labour Party and the Lib Dems also receive money from unincorporated associations but unlike the aforementioned groups, they tend to be more easily identifiable: these include the Manchester Labour Group, the Labour Lambeth Group and the Oldham Lib Dem Council Group at the Civic Centre. The latter donated more than £1 million to the Lib Dems in the last five years.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/political-donations-secretive-groups-funnelled-5348581

Thieves, liars, fraudsters, enablers of tax evaders and frieds of bankers and wankers.

Have a word with Unite they give Labour millions