Saturday 3 January 2009

Conservatives continue to take money from peer who broke his tax promise

The Conservative peer Lord Laidlaw was criticised by the Lords Appointments Commission last year for failing to keep his promise to stop being a tax exile if he was appointed to the House of Lords:

The commission said it had informed the prime minister of Lord Laidlaw’s situation and said it would not have approved his peerage if it had known that he would not honour his promise.

And how have the Conservatives reacted to this broken promise and public criticism? By continuing to take money from him, as today’s Daily Telegraph reports:
In March, June and September last year, the married peer made three donations of £27,000 each, through the Glasgow-based company Abbey Business Centres.

He also gave £25,000 to Boris Johnson’s London mayoral campaign.

The disclosure is likely to re-ignite the row over how the Tories are funded.

Questions have already been raised over donations from deputy party chairman Lord Ashcroft, who has failed to say if he is now officially resident in the UK.

Lord Laidlaw has donated almost £4million to the Tories since 2005


You can read their full Lord Laidlaw report here