That'll teach me

Well, there I am again opening my big mouth. An (anonymous) commenter to the last post asked me whether I had checked the tax status of every single individual who has made one of the 403 cash donations to the Green Party since 2001 (as stated on the register of donations to political parties, freely available on the Electoral Commission website, a question that of course I can't answer. Well, it does at least prove that someone is reading the blog!

What I have done is to list the Green Party's cash donors for 2009 (the whole year) below:

Donor Grand Total
Mr Thomas Gordon Roddick £30,000.00
Mr Michael Brook £30,000.00
Mr Ben Goldsmith £30,000.00
Ms Deborah Joffe £25,000.00
Mr Noel Gillian Kirkby £24,012.24
Mr Peter Kindersley £15,000.00
Mr Arthur Nicholas Gillett £15,000.00
Ms Jean Lambert £10,620.00
Political Animal Lobby Ltd status: Company company reg no: 2565899 £10,000.00
Ms Lucy Hall £10,000.00
Mr Michael Constantine £10,000.00
Ms Anne Power £9,500.00
Mr Chris Simpson £8,600.00
Mr Darren Johnson £8,140.00
Mr Nick Robins £7,250.00
Ms Caroline Lucas £7,100.00
Mr Martin Stanley £6,500.00
Ms Sarah Edwards £6,000.00
Mr Jonathan Porritt £6,000.00
Mr Mark Cridge £6,000.00
Mr Brian Fewster £6,000.00
Ms Rosanna Taylor £5,200.00
Mr Ricky Knight £5,180.00
Mr Martin Bevis Gillett £5,000.00
Mr Richard Reed £5,000.00
Mr Martin Beavis Gillett £4,000.00
Ms Mischa Borris £4,000.00
Ms Jenny Jones £3,525.00
Mr Brian Candeland £3,500.00
Ms Janet Alty £3,000.00
Mr Rupert Read £2,500.00
Ms Jennifer Toms £2,400.00
Mrs Jean Lambert £2,305.00
Mr Christopher Simpson £2,250.00
Glastonbury Festivals 2009 Ltd status: Company company reg no: 4348175 £2,000.00
Mr Andrew J P Gray £2,000.00
Environmental Futures Ltd status: Company company reg no: 4570563 £2,000.00
Mr Adam Ramsey £2,000.00
Mr Roger Ross £1,950.00
Ms Beverley A Cross £1,600.00
Ms Deborah Glass £1,400.00
BCMY Ltd status: Company company reg no: 4410148 £1,352.36
Hillingdon Green Print status: Company company reg no: 5203222 £1,300.00
Mr Arthur David Williams £1,224.00
Mr Craig Simmons £1,000.50
Grand Total £340,469.10

So there you have it. If any of these people are card-carrying non-doms I apologize, but as you can see there are no individual donors over £30,000, and many of the largest ones are bequests. As it happens, I do know a significant number of people on this list personally, as they are party members, and Green MEPs and London Assembly members also feature prominently in the list. Like many people in the Green Party, they often reach deep into their own pockets to fund their election campaigns.

Just for comparison, I included the Tory Party's donations for the same period:

Donor Grand Total
David Rowland £1,914,050.00
Stanley Fink £1,591,640.00
Michael Farmer £928,000.00
National Conservative Draws Society status: Unincorporated Association £821,500.00
IPGL Ltd status: Company company reg no: 02011009 £547,100.00
Lord John Sainsbury of Preston Candover £500,000.00
Joseph C Bamford £400,000.00
Michael D Bishop £335,000.00
Focus on Scotland status: Unincorporated Association £316,000.00
JCB Research status: Company company reg no: 00682651 £256,000.00
Mr Jeffrey Whalley £250,000.00
Lord Philip Harris of Peckham £250,000.00
IM Properties Plc status: Company company reg no: 03456022 £250,000.00
Mr Michael Hintze £222,000.00
William Cook Ltd status: Company company reg no: 00074837 £200,000.00
Peter A Cruddas £200,000.00
Mr Mark Bamford £200,000.00
Mr Paul M Ruddock £166,500.00
Michael Freeman £165,500.00
Mr Peter Beak £150,000.00
Ivor Braka Ltd status: Company company reg no: 01840837 £150,000.00
FIL Investment Management Ltd status: Company company reg no: 02349713 £150,000.00
Flowidea Ltd status: Company company reg no: 02463564 £131,170.00
Jeremy Hosking £125,000.00
David Whelan £125,000.00
Mr Abduladem M EL Mayet £118,000.00
Mr Alexander A Fraser £115,000.00
Rainham Steel Co Ltd status: Company company reg no: 01093531 £114,200.00
Mr Hani Farsi £110,968.46
Barbara C Yerolemou £110,000.00
Mr Michael Freeman £105,000.00
David Ord Ltd status: Company company reg no: 02614362 £105,000.00
Mr Anthony N Bickford £101,000.00
Mr James Stewart £100,230.00
Paul A Beecroft £100,000.00
Mr R C W Odey £100,000.00
Mr James Lyle £100,000.00
Mr Chaim P Zabludowicz £100,000.00
GFI Holdings Ltd status: Company company reg no: 03405222 £100,000.00
Fares I Fares £100,000.00
Grand Total £23,737,044.77

Please note I've only separated donations over £100,000 (otherwise they would run to 1,000 lines). So do I decry the Conservatives for accepting any large donation? No. Do I think something should be done to ensure that such large donations are not required in future? Yes. What do the Conservatives or Labour plan to do about this problem? Nothing. As long as this situation persists, there will be a concern that big money donors have too much influence over policy.

Policy supported by the Green Party conference:

RPA06.2: Peerages and Party Funding (Originally passed – Spring 2006)

Conference notes:

The controversy over the appointment of new Labour peers. That peerages appear to be given to major donors. That secret loans to the Labour Party were not even declared to the party treasurer.

These scandals highlight two problems:

• The House of Lords is filled by appointment rather than by election
• Political parties have to rely on rich individuals, big businesses and trade unions for funds

The Electoral Commission is investigating issues around party funding and the second chamber.

The Green Party supports a fully elected House of Lords and state funding for political parties. These changes would remove the dependence of parties on wealthy donors and the temptation for parties to reward donors with honours.

Conference instructs GPEx to commend these policies to the Electoral Commission.

So we need an end to large donations to political parties, an end to non-dom tax status and an end to an appointed House of Lords. And I can tell you that if there are any large donations to my campaign, you'll hear about them on this blog!