Just when the cash for honours scandal has died down, the UK Labour Party has been hit by another funding scandal, with the revelation that a wealthy property developer donated for than 600,000 pounds through four intermediares over the last few years. Some of the intermediaries apparently did not even know of the donations made in their names. This is a clear violation of the UK's election funding laws, which ban this sort of laundering, and it has already claimed the scalp of Labour's generla secretary. But no-one thinks he was the only person who knew about it, and questions are now focusing on how much other top party officials and senior MPs colluded in this flagrant violation of the law. Despite its promise to clean up politics and restore trust to the political system, it seems New Labour has behaved in a deeply corrupt manner to disguise the identity of its donors, and that this rot may go all the way to the top.
Coincidentally, we will be passing similar provisions to the UK in the Electoral Finance Bill (though there will be some scope for anonymous donation, laundering is banned). And it will be interesting to see whether National's rich donors will obey the law, or go to similar lengths to disguise their donations and influence.
