Questions for Harriet Harman
- 29 Nov 07, 07:21 PM
Harriet Harman is STILL fundraising for the deputy leadership election that finished on the 24th June.
Why? I'm told her campaign vastly overspent the donations received during the contest. One of her team told me they were "deficit financed".
She's holding a fundraiser at a nightclub in Leicester Square in London next Wednesday. The invitation says:
"This is the last opportunity to raise funds towards the cost of our very successful campaign"
My question is simple - where will the money raised go?
Clearly it's not for current expenditure since the contest finished long ago. If the campaign is paying back loans, then those loans should have been reported within 30 days to the electoral commission.
The Electoral Commission's entry for Harriet Harman only records one loan arrangement - an overdraft facility for Β£10,000 with Nat West taken out in October 2006.
This lunchtime I filed a series of 11 questions to the Labour Party - I'm still waiting for a response
Here are the questions:
1 How did Harriet Harman fund her campaign for the deputy leadership election?
2 How much did the campaign cost to run in total?
3 Is the loan for Β£10,000 pounds from the National Westminster Bank taken out on the 3rd October 2006 the only loan she has entered into to fund her campaign?
4 Why is she still raising money for a campaign that finished on 22nd June 2007?
5 Where will the money go that is raised at the event planned for 5th December 2007 at Sounds Nightclub in Leicester Square?
6 If the money raised at this event goes towards settling campaign debts, where are the required records of those debts?
7 Did she borrow money in her own name for the purposes of the campaign without declaring it to the electoral commission as a loan?
8 Did she borrow money against any assets owned jointly with Jack Dromey for the purpose of funding her campaign?
9 Why is Harriet Harman using her office in the House of Commons as a base from which to raise party political funds, in contravention of Parliamentary rules? (the initiation for her fund raiser on the 5th December invites people to send donations to Charlotte Montague at her office at the House of Commons)
10 Is Charlotte Montague’s salary paid from Harriet Harman’s MP’s allowances?
11 If Charlotte Montague is paid from Harriet Harman’s MP’s allowances why is she working on Harriet Harman’s campaign from Harriet Harman’s office at the House of Commons? Why has she not registered this in the relevant register of interests for MP’s staff?
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I can answer question 6 for you - you need to reread PPERA!
Campaign expenditure by candidates in internal party elections is not covered in PPERA as a registerable expense, only donations.
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So you want another Government minister to get the bullet by Brown? Well Harriot was elected so the only way she will get kicked out is by those who elected her. She is not an appointee, and I voted for Cuddess.
Anyway what has all this got to do with the price of beans?
Get real media. There is a real world out here trying to keep our heads up from sinking in taxes. I suppose it keeps you all in a job, which is more than I can say for many that I know.
Nice work (dirt) if you can get it. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
I have "blogged" many times when Blair was not the flavour of the month, that it won't be long before Brown becomes the worst PM since Thatcher, and looked what they did to her.
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To the person who posted at 11:32 PM - your comment that this is only an issue for "the Westminster village" is a typical claim by those trying to take the heat off Gordon Brown. The simple facts are, as was similar with the Tories sleaze under the Major government, how can the nation trust this government? They expect us to all be above the law, and yet they can't. The main point is that while all of this is happening (rightfully if they did something wrong) what are ministers doing?...getting on with their jobs?...I really doubt it, they are watching their own backs and positioning themselves in relation to those who have been caught out. Its impossible to say that they are able to channel all of their energy into the good of the country currently. Mervyn Kings comments yesterday, do you really think Gordon had those at the top of his agenda?...of course not!
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At some stage over the past few days I couldn't help speculating that Harriet Harman's current predicament was part of a carefully decided plan to insure that if Harman actually won, her position would be untenable. However, if a politician in office including ministerial post can't manage to save up a reasonable sum for their own personal use to further their career, no wonder the country is in the state that its in. Many MP's are brainless ten bob fat cats who actually owe the sum total of their projected lifetime income and who are on paper millionaires. They are obviously slaves to the stock market and banking system, if they were not, Northern Rock would be nationalized by now.
Peter Hain was coming out with all guns firing against the stock market parasites during the start of his deputy leadership campaign, then perhaps after getting the perhaps fatal loan he turns into a good Nazi on welfare reform. After spending many years campaigning against Apartheid he does more to stoke discrimination against disabled people than anybody over the past 60 years. One rule for foreigners and when it comes to fighting financial apartheid at home its tough luck, have taken the ten pieces of silver now.
So much for democracy, we now have a system which resembles a cross breed between Not the Nine O'clock news and Monty Python's Flying Circus, cutbacks at the Ministry of Silly Walks and other aspects of ( especially transport and environment ) policy which one might just expect from a government led by " Mr. Bean ".
Seen from the height of a thousand miles, the Earth looks the same as it did.
How is it we can fly faster than day, but we can't find the things we need.
Uriah Heep ( 1975 )
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It is not ideal that that M/s Wark should still be on Newsnight with her historical close connections to the Labour Party, particularly during subjects such as these.
We expect and respect total objectivity?
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