Alexander apologises for illegal funding
Wendy Alexander
The Scottish Labour Party has been dragged into the funding row engulfing the Labour party in England.
Wendy Alexander was named by the Electoral Commission last Wednesday as they investigated a donation to her leadership campaign fund.
The disputed donation has come from Paul Green, a Labour supporter from the Channel Islands.
Her campaign received £950 from the businessman, who is not eligible to donate to party campaigns because he is not registered to vote in the UK.
It has been alleged that Ms Alexander's fundraising team contacted Mr Green to ask him about a possible donation.
But as a Jersey resident, he is banned by election laws from funding politicians in Scotland.
Labour Party officials said they were operating under the belief that the donation was allowed under UK election law, but referred the matter to the Electoral Commission when newspapers began suggesting that the £995 donation was illegal.
Tom McCabe, the campaign manager for Ms Alexander's leadership bid commented: "Paul Green was invited by one of the campaign team to make a donation as a long standing Labour supporter.
"As required by the rules, we made inquiries about permissibility and indicated to him that only a UK resident or UK-registered company could donate. The registered donation was a UK corporate one. We acted in good faith at every stage."
On Thursday, the Electoral Commission stated that the cheque donated by Mr Green was clearly illegal.
The SNP has also made allegations that "dirty and laundered" money received from David Abrahams—the figure at the centre of the donations row which has unsettled the Labour leadership in the past week—was used by the Scottish Labour Party in the 2007 Holyrood election campaign.
Mr Abrahams used proxies to channel £660,000 of illegal donations to the Labour party.
Charlie Gordon, the MSP who sought out the donation has resigned his post as transport spokesman for Labour.
Des Browne, the Scotland Secretary, denied that any of the money raised illegally from Mr Abrahams had been used in the Scottish election campaign. He said: "I can give you a categorical assurance, in terms of my state of knowledge, that none of those donations to the Labour Party, that have been figuring in the media over the last couple of days, went to fund any part of the Scottish elections, any part of the Scottish election campaign, to my knowledge."
Ms Alexander is 44 and has been an MSP since 1999. She was elected as Scottish Labour leader in August after Jack McConnell resigned from the post following his party's defeat at the hands of the SNP in May's general elections.
A spokesman for Wendy Alexander said that the war chest for the campaign had been £17,000. A source close to the party leader said that if the donation was found to be in breach of the rules, she would return it.
An SNP spokesman said: "The row over Labour's funding sleaze has now moved across the border, right into the heart of the Labour leadership in Scotland. It is essential that Wendy Alexander discloses all the relevant facts about this matter."
The donor behind the scandal, Paul Green, is a tax exile and multi-millionaire. He recently opened a £350m shopping complex in Pollok, Glasgow.
The mall won Pock Mark prize from Prospect Magazine for the worst planning decision in Scotland this year.
Mr Green has focused much of his energies over the past twenty years on retail in and around Glasgow. Born in Northampton and brought up in Buckinghamshire, the 65-year old has no obvious link with Glasgow. In a rare interview, he said: "I happen to like the people there."
The row surrounding Gordon Brown and his Labour Party began when it was revealed that a businessman had given £650,000 to the party through intermediaries.
David Abrahams channelled the money into Labour Party coffers over four years under other people's names.
One of the intermediaries used was unaware of Abrahams using her name for the transactions and was a lifelong Tory voter.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has described the situation as unlawful and "completely unacceptable" and Ms Alexander apologised for the illegal donations in a statement after a lecture given at the University of Edinburgh Law School.
Comment on this article
Related articles
0 comments on Alexander apologises for illegal funding