LONDON (Bywire News) - The Labour Party have written to the Electoral Commission demanding an urgent investigation into multiple 'potentially illegal' donations made to Boris Johnson's Conservative Party, it has emerged.
Following an investigation by Business Insider, Labour Chair Anneliese Dodds has called on the UK's official election watchdog to investigate three donations made to the Tories, totalling £20,000, which Labour claim may have breached electoral law.
In the letter to Bob Posner, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission, Dodds urged the body to delve into donations made to the Conservative Party by two companies - Stridewell Estates and Unionist Buildings - which appear to no longer exist.
Electoral law stipulates that political parties are only allowed to receive donations from companies which are registered in the UK under the 2006 Companies Act.
However, Stridewell Estates - who had a £10,000 donation accepted by the Tories in November 2019 - were dissolved as a company three years previously in 2016.
Responding to the situation, a spokesperson for Stridewell said "there must be a mistake", adding:
"It is very possible that the company that donated has been recorded incorrectly."
Whilst Unionist Buildings - who were dissolved in January 2017 - had two donations accepted by the Tories after this date: a £6,000 donation to the local party association of Wendy Morton, the Foreign Office Minister, in June 2017, and another £4,000 donation to the same association in January 2020.
In her letter to the Commission, Dodds wrote:
"I trust you will agree that these cases require urgent investigation to understand why companies that have been officially registered as dissolved by Companies House made thousands of pounds in donations to the Conservative Party and a sitting Conservative Member of Parliament.
"I trust that any breach of the rules will be immediately subject to your Enforcement Policy, as part of the vital work to uphold public trust and confidence in the rules upholding electoral finance."
A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission responded only by confirming reciept of the letter, and stating that a formal reply would be issued shortly.
Speaking to Business Insider, the head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, Steve Goodrich, said:
"The rules on company donations make it far too easy for money of unknown provenance to enter UK politics. Parties should at least be checking to see if their corporate donors are at least "carrying on business" in Britain, yet that's such a low hurdle to pass as to be next to meaningless.
"The law needs changing so political donations from companies can only derive from genuine commercial activities."
(Writing by Tom D. Rogers, editing by Jessica Miller.)