On November 28, 2006, the financial challenges facing Labour before the May elections were revealed when it was disclosured that the party must return almost GBP 17 million of debts within just a year.
About GBP 5.5 million of loans are to be repaid by the end of next December, while the rest more than GBP 11 million by November 2007.
A Welsh businessman Sir Christopher Evans, who last year lent the party GBP 1 million expected his cash back in just some months.
The police investigation of possible connections between loans and peerages will end in January 2007.
The Tories need to return almost GBP 20 million by July 2007. Three of their loans came from overseas. One of the overseas loans comes from a British Virgin Islands-registered company Lanners Services Ltd and accounts for GBP 3.6 million.
In accordance with the Electoral Commission data, the loan has been charged at 6.75%.
So, the funding of British political parties is quite messy as the main political parties leap on each other’s financial problems quickly.