The Electoral Commission
has launched an investigation into an illegal donation to Wendy Alexander MSP’s
campaign to take over from Jack McConnell as Labour leader in the Scottish
Parliament, following Labour’s worst electoral defeat in 50 years. The crisis
unfolded when the Sunday Herald learned that every donation to the Wendy
campaign was under £1,000. Many were for £950. Under the Elections Act 2000,
all donations of £1,000 or more must be declared to the Electoral
Commission. On November 29th, the Sunday Herald’s sister daily, The Herald,
discovered that Paul Green, a millionaire businessman who lives in Jersey, had
donated £950 to the campaign of Charles Gordon in the Cathcart by-election for
the Scottish Parliament. The by-election was brought about after the jailing of
Lord Michael Watson, who set fire to a posh hotel at a Scottish political
awards night. Green had a personal relationship with Charles Gordon when the
latter was leader of Glasgow City Council. Green needed planning permission for
a multi-million pound shopping centre in Glasgow. Green, as a non-resident of
the UK and a person who cannot vote, was not allowed to donate to
political parties. Charlie Gordon accepted the money nevertheless (Herald Dec
6th).
When McConnell stood down, Wendy Alexander announced immediately she wanted to
be Labour’s leader in Scotland. Her super-organised "Team Alexander"
raised almost £17,000 and comprised a manager, treasurer, advisers and
fundraisers. Charles Gordon was a fundraiser. Ultimately, there was no contest
and Wendy was elected unopposed. As journalists dug deeper, Alexander and her
supporters refused to discuss donations because they had all been under
the £1,000 radar. But in a sensational development, the Sunday Herald
claimed to have a file from a computer registered to Wendy Alexander’s
husband which listed the donors by name and included £950 from Paul Green. In
the file, from early September, was a question mark querying the
validity of Paul Green’s donation and whether it was legal. In the
official list provided later to the Commission, the entry relating to Green’s
donation appeared to have been altered to show it came from Glasgow company
Combined Property Services, said the paper, and not from Green. The same
day, the Sunday Herald published an undisputed letter from Wendy
Alexander to Paul Green at his address in Jersey, personally thanking him
for his donation. It then invited readers to draw conclusions as to whether
anyone could genuinely believe that Wendy Alexander would not have
known about Paul Green’s donation.
Scottish Labour Party admits the donation was
illegal and all the media are referring to it as such, without quotation marks.
The Scottish LP are trying to sacrifice Charlie Gordon MSP but the hacks and
the SNP have refused to let go. Gordon resigned his transport spokesman
position, hoping that would be an end to it. The Sunday Herald has been digging
away and unearthing all the wrongdoings. Paul Green (the donor) is raging that
he has been involved in the fiasco. Seems, like Abrahams with the government,
he was looking for favours later on; possibly along the lines of Lord Laidlaw
who has given £7 million over the last few years to the Scottish Tories in
return for his peerage – but has still not fulfilled the condition that he live
in the UK.
All involved blame the hapless ex-communist Charlie Gordon for soliciting the
money from Green and claim they acted in good faith. When the truth about
Charlie’s arrangement with Paul Green became public, Gordon resigned from his
transport spokesman position. "Team Alexander" hoped this might be an
end to the matter but the SNP, as you would expect, are making hay over this spectacular
own goal by the New Labour carpetbaggers and careerists. Charles Gordon now
says he "mis-spoke" (Herald, Dec 6th). In the absence of any real
democracy and accountability in the party, and with a weak left, the
right wing have become so complacent and arrogant. They are damaging
the entire labour movement in Scotland. If the Electoral
Commission finds the law has been broken – and nobody disputes that this is the
case – the police will become involved and criminal proceedings will follow.
