TORY LOBBY GROUP FAILS TO DECLARE DONATIONS

A Tory Party organisation which offers meetings with senior Conservative Party MPs in return for payment has failed to declare its income and is falsely claiming immunity from the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.

The Electoral Commission states that organisations made up predominantly of members of a single political party are regulated donees under the PPERA.

The Enterprise Forum says it exists to provide a link between business and the Conservative Party , and “offer our membership…contacts…between senior Conservative Party policy formers and the business community”.

On their website David Cameron endorses the group saying the Enterprise Forum “plays an invaluable role” in helping the Conservative Party.

The Forum’s members, in return for a non-declared donation of up to £2,000, met this year with senior Conservative frontbenchers including David Gauke MP, Shadow Treasury Minister, Mark Prisk MP, Shadow Business Minister and Phillip Hammond MP, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. A “champagne reception” meeting with Party Leader David Cameron is scheduled for 25 November this year.

The group claims to be “independent” and “does not fall within the remit of the Political Party Elections and Referendums Act 2000″

Yet the body is clearly a Conservative supporting group - its Management Board is made up of Tory Councillors, ex PPCs and MPs

Its website also states clearly: “The Enterprise Forum is your link with the Conservative party”.

So it is not independent.

The website also states: “It plays a major contribution in achieving our political objective . . .” (Quote from Malcolm Harbour MEP)

So its role includes trying to help the Conservatives win election.

How can this organisation - with a stated aim of helping the Tories get back into power, with a board made up entirely of Tory members and run by the ex-business relations manager of the Tory Party, claim to be “independent” and exempt from the act when organisations like the Fabian Society and Progress, similar non-profit making Labour-affiliated bodies are regarded as not exempt from the Act?

The Enterprise Forum is clearly providing the Conservative Party with significant donations in kind - in the form of events and research support.

So who’s paying for it and why are they avoiding registering their political donations?

editor[at]recessmonkey.com