Thursday, May 17, 2007

Fifth Avenue Partners: The Wait Continues

The LibDems are still on tenterhooks on whether they have to return the £2.4 million donation from the convicted fraudster Michael Brown. There's no indication of how much longer they will have to wait following this parliamentary answer.

Hansard 16 May
Mr. Heald: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission if he will make a statement on progress by the Electoral Commission with its investigation into donations by 5th Avenue Partners. [137192]
Peter Viggers: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer to him of 15 January 2007, Official Report, column 791W. The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not intend to make any decision in relation to donations made to the Liberal Democrats by Fifth Avenue Partners Ltd. until it has received confirmation from both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service that legal proceedings would not be prejudiced by it doing so.

Note: apologies that this answer somehow disappeared from the original post!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

which parly answer?

Tristan said...

The Parliamentary Answer: The Wait Continues

Readers of Iain Dale's blog are on tenderhooks waiting for details of the parliamentary answer he alluded to. There's no indication of how long they'll have to wait, or whether the wait shall be worth it.

Anonymous said...

Tristan and the wait will be long, this is already the second post on his blog. Out of sight out of mind.

Anonymous said...

Iain,

I hope that in your interview with the chairjman of the Electoral Commission you will point out that under PPERA 2000:

61. - (1) A person commits an offence if he-

(a) knowingly enters into, or
(b) knowingly does any act in furtherance of,

any arrangement which facilitates or is likely to facilitate, whether by means of any concealment or disguise or otherwise, the making of donations to a registered party by any person or body other than a permissible donor.

It looks like there is a case for PC Plod to be fingering Sam Younger's collar.

Iain Dale said...

Sam Younger has pulled out of the interview tonight. He says he cannot say anything until the inquiry into the Scottish elections is over. He will be on in the summer sometime.

Anonymous said...

'Yawn'

So no change there then.

You missed posting the thread about the sun coming up this morning Iain!