Labour has called for an investigation into £75,000 of donations to Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick, saying it had “serious concerns” about the money’s ultimate origin.
Mr Jenrick, the frontrunner for the Conservative leadership, received three donations of £25,000 in July from The Spott Fitness, a fitness coaching app provider.
As first reported by the Tortoise news website, the company’s latest accounts show it has no employees, has never made a profit and has more than £300,000 of debts, and in January it registered a loan from Centrovalli, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The ownership of companies registered in the British Virgin Islands is not made public, leading Labour to question where the money donated to Mr Jenrick ultimately came from.
Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves said in a letter to the Electoral Commission: “Donations to MPs must come from sources registered in the UK. It is clear that Mr Jenrick has serious questions to answer about the origin of these funds and their legality.”
A source close to Mr Jenrick’s campaign dismissed Labour’s request as “nonsense”, saying it served to “prove who Labour fear the most”.
Speaking to Sky News earlier on Sunday, Mr Jenrick insisted no laws had been broken.
He said: “As I understand it, this is a fitness company that operates in the UK.
“It’s a perfectly legal and valid donation under British law and we’ve set it out in the public domain in the way that one does with donations.”
The questions come amid rows about senior Labour figures accepting donations from Lord Waheed Alli, although Mr Jenrick stressed he was not criticising the donations but what he called Labour’s “rank hypocrisy”.
He said: “They spent years complaining about other political parties and then they’ve chosen to take off donors and cronies and to give passes to Number 10 in response.”
Britain’s laws on political donations have long been criticised by transparency campaigners as too weak to prevent anonymous money from impermissible donors entering the system.
Earlier this year, Transparency International UK told a parliamentary committee there was “a growing body of evidence suggesting it is far too easy for money of unknown or questionable provenance to enter our political system”.
It pointed to the “low bar” for foreign companies to be allowed to donate money to UK politicians – firms only have to be “carrying on business in the UK” and there is no requirement for donations to be generated from UK profits – and claimed existing rules had proven “almost unenforceable in practice”.
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