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Wednesday, December 17, 1997 Published at 19:37 GMT

Hague to disclose Conservative funding
image: [ Hague: Tories willing to disclose information about donors ]

Hague: Tories willing to disclose information about donors

The Conservative Party will disclose details of its funding over the last five years, following a request from the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

William Hague, the Conservative party leader, told the Commons he would comply with the request after the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, had made similar undertakings concerning the Labour Party's donors.

The Committee asked the main political parties to disclose information about their funding as part of its inquiry into donations and the merits of 'state funding'.

The chairman of the Conservative Party, Lord Parkinson, said his party wanted to see a thorough and full inquiry into party's future funding.

"We will provide the Committee with all the information they require, but we will need reassurance that we can do this without breaching the confidence of individuals who have given money in the past on the understanding that they would remain anonymous," he said.

Although the Committee is not demanding the names of donors, it is asking each of the main parties;

how many donations above Ł5,000 have been received in the last five years

how many foreign donations are received, and

the source of the gifts in general terms.

The wide-ranging inquiry, headed by Lord Neill of Bladen QC, is expected to publish findings in 1998.

Traditionally, political parties have used a variety of sources to raise money which is used to support activities and campaigning.

These include membership subscriptions, individual fund-raising events, institutional donations from business, trade unions, and pressure groups, and profits from party conferences.

The Committee will be looking at how traditional fund-raising methods developed, and whether certain forms of cash donation influence the development of policies within political parties and governments.

Lord Neill has said that he is planning to make firm recommendations on the need for more openness and the possiblility of funding political parties through the state.

The Government has already said that it will introduce legislation to ban foreign donors. Lord Neill's committee intend to determine how the definition of 'foreign donation' should be employed, and how the new laws should be policed.

The Government is also planning to make disclosure of parties' biggest donors compulsory.

Pressure on the British Government to reform the way political parties are funded follows the revelation in November 1997 that a leading figure in the motor-racing industry made a Ł1m donation to the governing Labour Party earlier this year.

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