Reporting of the current row between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP – over the accounting procedures covering the latter’s flyer campaign in the Angus constituency – has somehow lost sight of an interesting fact.
As For Argyll reported earlier, Angus is the single Scottish constituency funded as a winnable marginal by Lord Ashcroft’s money tree at Conservative HQ in London.
As a political commentator neatly said when Lord Ashcroft’s non-dom (meaning ‘non UK-tax paying’) status was confirmed, the vast sums of money he contributes to Conservative coffers have, in effect, been siphoned off the national exchequer.
Pot and kettle?
Just so you know, and you can confirm this yourself using the register of donations on the electoral commission’s website, the tories in Angus have recieved no money whatsoever from Lord Ashcroft or his companies.
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For Mystery Man: The money for winnable marginals comes not from Michael Ashcroft as such but from Conservative Central Office through an internal fund which, as we understand it, he manages and to which he has been a major donor, although not the only one.
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That IS the case, south of the border, however the party north of the border is, certainly according to my sources, financially independent. If you look at the web page http://registers.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/regdpoliticalparties.cfm and look up the Angus Tories, their data is up their, all this fuss has come up because if you try the same thing with Angus SNP, there isn’t any data. However the SNP in the area is apparently using a system with four different units in four different towns in the constituency, which individually are all under £25000 in their spending. This means they dont have to submit accounts, but as to the legality of this i dont know.
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