THE Conservative Party is trying to “buy” the result of the general election by pouring huge sums of money into the fight, it was claimed last night.
Labour MP Nick Ainger has represented Carmarthen West and Pembrokeshire South since 1992 but is facing a tough battle to keep his seat as the Tories invest large sums of money in his main opponent’s campaign.
Mr Ainger said the law should be changed to place a limit on the amount of cash that can be poured into a constituency. Under current arrangements, there is no limit on campaign spending until a general election is called.
And under the existing laws governing political donations, it is impossible to establish how much money is channelled into a particular seat.
Mr Ainger, who will be defending a majority of just 1,910 over the Conservatives at next year’s general election, said: “I am very concerned that we are heading in the direction of the United States, where the candidate with most money can effectively buy an election. In my seat there has been a huge increase in the amount of campaigning by the Conservatives in the last couple of years. The local Tories have received £40,000 from a businessman who runs a hedge fund and, we understand, £25,000 from Lord Ashcroft [the party’s wealthy deputy chairman].
“There has been a lot of telephone contact with voters and a lot of literature sent out, including a recent glossy publication sent to every household in the constituency which encouraged people to respond by freepost. That is very expensive, and we just can’t match it.
“I really think there should be strict limits placed on how much campaigning should be permissible at any time, not just in the several weeks running up to an election.”
Mr Ainger said it was clear that “Ashcroft money” was being directed by the Conservatives to other marginal seats in Wales.
“A friend of mine, Peter Bradley, who lost his seat, The Wrekin, at the last election in 2005 has told me he has no doubt that it was Ashcroft money spent by the Conservatives which was crucial in the result. It’s too late to change the law before the next election, but this is something that should be changed before we go further down the American route,” he said.
A recent poll in The Daily Telegraph showed the Conservatives had a higher proportional lead in marginal seats over Labour than in Britain as a whole. This was attributed to the “Ashcroft factor” of pouring money into crucial marginals.
A spokesman for the Electoral Commission confirmed that if a donor gave money to a political party’s headquarters, the party could pass it on to local units. Yesterday, the Welsh Conservative Party denied a specific “Ashcroft unit” had been established in Wales to channel funds to marginal seats. Such a unit does, however, exist in Conservative Central Office in London, where it is controlled directly by Lord Ashcroft himself.
A Welsh Conservative Party spokesman said: “Instead of trying to make cheap political points, Labour should be more honest about their ‘non dom’ donors and peers that reportedly include Lord Paul, the man who bankrolled Gordon Brown’s leadership campaign and who was recently elevated to the Privy Council.”
