Former Tory treasurer gave party £200,000 gift just days before he was forced to resign

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Former Tory treasurer gave party £200,000 gift just days before he was forced to resign

May 23rd, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Peter Cruddas boost coffers week before secret footage exposing cash for access issue emerge
Tories also received more than £500,000 in donations in first three months of 2012

By
Daniel Martin

PUBLISHED:

20:16 EST, 22 May 2012

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UPDATED:

20:16 EST, 22 May 2012

Peter Cruddas, Chairman of CMC Group PLC in his London office

Big doner: Former Tory treasurer gave Tory Party £212,000 a week before secret film exposed him in the cash for access row

Former Tory treasurer Peter Cruddas donated more than £200,000 to his party just days before he was forced to resign over cash for access, it was revealed yesterday.

He boosted the Conservatives’ coffers a week before secret footage emerged of him boasting that ‘Premier League’ donations would result in meetings with David Cameron and the chance to influence policy.

Figures from the Electoral Commission show Mr Cruddas donated more than £212,000 on March 16. Of this, £204,000 was in cash.

In addition, the Tories received more than £500,000 in donations during the first three months of the year from businessmen who attended secret lunches, dinners and parties held by the Prime Minister at No 10 and Chequers.

The revelation will add to concerns that Mr Cameron is giving big businessmen undue access and influence over policies.

Last night Simon Danczuk, Labour MP for Rochdale, said: ‘It seems David Cameron’s cosy dinners with millionaire donors helped the Tories rake in more than half a million in just three months.

‘And not content with entertaining them at No 10 and Chequers, David Cameron and George Osborne gave them a cut in the 50p rate of tax while millions are paying more. It just shows who David Cameron listens to.’

The biggest donor who had been entertained by Mr Cameron was Michael Farmer, a financier who is known as ‘Mr Copper’. He gave £183,950.

Michael Spencer gave £82,723 through his brokerage firm IPGL Ltd; while JCB chairman Anthony Bamford gave £95,000 through JCB Research and Bamford Industries. In total, nine donors handed the Tories £560,038 in the first quarter of 2012.

Cosy: David Cameron and George Osborne have been accused of giving millionaires a cut in the 50p rate of tax while millions are paying more

Cosy: David Cameron and George Osborne have been given millionaires a cut in the 50p rate of tax while millions more are paying more

A Tory party spokesman said about Mr Cruddas’s donation: ‘This was a fully permissible and acceptable donation.’

The Electoral Commission figures show that donations to political parties rose to just under £9million between January and March 2012, up £1.9million on the previous three months.

The Conservatives received the most at £4,086,097 but Labour was not far behind, bringing in £3,452,441. Money given to the Liberal Democrats totalled £606,724.

The figures show that Ed Miliband is still overwhelmingly reliant on the unions for money. In the last quarter, 74 per cent of Labour’s donations came from them.

Conservative Party co-chairman Baroness Warsi said: ‘Ed Miliband’s union paymasters are threatening strikes to ruin the Jubilee and the Olympics for hardworking people.

‘Ed Miliband should stop being weak and condemn these strikes.’