SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes has written to Ruth Davidson asking for answers on disturbing "dark money" accusations made against the Scottish Tory Party.
The Conservative MSP is under pressure following revelations that Richard Cook, the former vice chairman of the Scottish Tories, facilitated a shadowy £425,000 Brexit donation to the DUP.
He is the only known member of the Constitutional Research Council, an Unincorporated Association (UA) which funnelled the substantial donation to the DUP during the EU referendum.
That money was then used to buy adverts supporting the Brexit campaign throughout the whole of the UK, including a £280,000 four-page advert in the Metro, a newspaper not available in Northern Ireland.
BBC’s Spotlight revealed that the Metro advert was booked by Cook himself, and not, as the advert itself said, the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives have received donations from similar UAs such as The Scottish Unionist Association Trust and the Irvine Unionist Club. These donations ranged in size from £20,000 to £130,000.
My 3 key #questions to the @ScotTories & @RuthDavidsonMSP | The where and why of #darkmoney #DUP #RuthDavidson Told to Come Clean Over Trail of Murky Donations: More from the @ththighland https://t.co/eeOpFM9qlm… pic.twitter.com/jzbKNhuUbw
— Martin Docherty-Hughes MP 🏴🏳️🌈 (@MartinJDocherty) July 1, 2018
Docherty-Hughes wrote: "As someone who has taken a keen interest in in the health of our democracy, it was another piece in an unfortunate pattern of the Scottish Conservatives using electoral and company law to obscure the ultimate source of donations it receives: donations which seem to be approaching some half a million pounds over the last number of years."
He concluded by asking for answers to three specific questions:
- What checks did the Scottish Conservative Party have in place before accepting such large donations from Unincorparted Associations?
- Is Richard Cook the ultimate source of the donations set out, and is he still a member of the Scottish Conservative Party?
- Does the party have a policy for accepting donations from the Constitutional Research Council?
Pete Wishart has also urged the Electoral Commission to investigate the claims made against the Scottish Conservative party.
Wishart said recent revelations meant “the trail of dodgy, dark money running through certain political parties in the UK can no longer go unaddressed”.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: "After the week it’s had, the SNP should sort out its own house before pointing the finger at others."
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel