Tories promise probe into donations 'cover up'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Tories said they will investigate claims that they had failed to declare the true sources of almost £40,000 of donations.
A series of cash gifts between 2005 and 2008 were registered with the Electoral Commission as coming from a company called Unicorn Administration.
According to The Sunday Times, however, the money had been paid by Unicorn on behalf of a number of donors including Zac Goldsmith, now the party's candidate for Richmond Park.
The other donors were said to be Mr Goldsmith's brother Ben and property developers the Reuben brothers.
While the Tories were apparently informed of the sources of the cash, which came in five different donations totalling £38,950, they were not registered as such with the Electoral Commission.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: "It appears that there may have been an administrative error in registering these donations.
"Now that it has been drawn to our attention, we are taking immediate steps to investigate it and rectify the declarations as necessary.
"Clearly, there was no motive of concealment since all those on whose behalf Unicorn was acting have already been declared as donating to the party."
Party sources insisted that there had been no attempt cover up the donations and that all of the donors were individually listed elsewhere on the Electoral Commission's register.
But Lord Oakeshott, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said he would be asking the Electoral Commission to conduct an inquiry.
"Back-door gifts through front companies blatantly break the spirit of the law on cleaning up Britain's moneybags politics," he said.
"If the Conservative Party have nothing to hide, why not declare straight out their thousands instead of using the cover of Unicorn Administration? It is hard to see how these can be simple errors."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments