Today’s decision by the Electoral Commission that everything was hunky-dory with Ashcroft’s donations of £5.1 millions to the Tory Party via his company Bearwood Corporate Services (BCS) looks like a whitewash, contradicted by – or at least unsupported by – their own evidence, made all the more suspect by their admission that Tory officials refused to be interviewed by them and that Ashcroft had shredded some of the key documents.   I have therefore sent an FOI request to Jenny Watson, the Electoral Commission chair, requesting disclosure of:

1  all the evidence and documents on which you relied to reach your conclusion that BSC was operating as a propoer company when the donations were made to the Conservative Party and was not a proxy for Lord Ashcroft to make these donations,

2  the grounds on which you relied for your conclusion that the absence of documented evidence of a deal for BCS to donate on behalf of Lord Ashcroft means that BCS could not be a proxy,

3  all the evidence and documents which led you to conclude that on balance there was certainty withing the Conservatice Party about the identity of the donor,

4  what invitations, and on what dates, were sent to Conservative Party officials to attend meetings with the Commission which were refused or ignores, and what was the information which would have been sought at these meetings,

5  A list of all the documents  which were sought from Lord Ashcroft which he failed, or was unable, to produce,

6  all the documentary evidence of attempts made to discover whether Lord Ashcroft was registered as a UK voter on the electoral register,

7  all the internal party emails and sections of Lord Ashcroft’s book Dirty Politics, Dirty Times which indicate that the donations were from him rather than BCS.

Answers to these within the statutorily allotted 20 days should be interesting.

Bookmark to: