Interesting, quite a way to show no confidence in Brown:
A ‘money’ quote, ha ha.
All this matters because the Labour Party is heading for financial meltdown. Even Ray Collins, its new general secretary, admits that its finances are in a parlous state. Mr Brown’s preferred candidate to take charge of the organisation - David Pitt-Watson, a City fund manager - turned down the job because he did not want to become personally liable for more than £20 million of debt. Labour has until Monday to submit its accounts to the Electoral Commission. It is touch and go whether the auditors will sign them off. The party could still ask for an extension, rather than be declared bankrupt.
According to the latest figures from the Electoral Commission, large individual gifts to the Labour Party have almost completely dried up. More than 90 per cent of donations in the first quarter of this year came from trade unions. Party sources say that there have been some contributions in the past few weeks - including around £250,000 from Sir Ronald Cohen, the venture capitalist. But attempts to renegotiate a series of multimillion-pound loans after the cash-for-peerages affair, are not going well. One wealthy man with a loan outstanding has made it clear that he does not want to be “taken for granted”.
I hadn’t realized that aspect of the political machine workings of the British system. Grungy, to say the least.