Gordon Brown has tried to hide the details of £100,000 of political donations made to his leadership campaign from the whole range of rich businessmen and trade unions. The Electoral Commission released the new information after news that private equity chiefs have handed more than £500,000 to Labour Party in recent weeks.
Among the backers of Mr Brown’s campaign the Commission named David Pitt-Watson of private equity and fund management firm Hermes who gave £2,500, and former Labour ministers Lord Simon and Lord Haskell who donated £3,000 and £5,000 respectively.
Mr Brown was also given the amount of £20,000 from a Labour peer and steel magnate Lord Paul, beside the amount of the £25,000 he gave in March. Earlier Lord Paul was engaged in a row concerning his tax status: it was revealed by the Evening Standard that Lord Paul does not pay tax on his overseas earnings because he is non-domiciled in the UK for tax purposes. His donations came through his firm Caparo Industries, whose parent company is registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Chris Grayling, Shadow Cabinet Member, has said in his comments, “Gordon Brown has spent his entire leadership campaign promising to restore trust in politics. Now as soon as he’s become Prime Minister, he’s trying to burying bad news about embarrassing donations to his campaign. This sort of spinning doesn’t bode well for his time in Number 10â€.