Labour forced to repay donation

Charities are barred from donating to political parties

Friday, 05, Sep 2008 12:00

Labour has been forced to repay a donation from a children's charity following a ruling from the Charity Commission earlier today.

The party received £15,000 from Catz Club – a group which runs after-school clubs – contrary to laws banning the donation of cash from charities to political parties.

The group gets some of its funding from the national lottery and has won support among various government figures, including Ed Miliband, Cabinet minister.

The investigation followed an urgent letter to the commission from shadow charities minister Greg Clark last week.

"It is well known that Labour have staggering levels of debt and are scrabbling round for money to stay afloat," Mr Clark said.

"But after the cash for honours investigation, Peter Hain's resignation and the David Abrahams scandal, taking money from children's charities strikes a new low in Labour's donations history."

A Labour Party spokesperson said: "The Electoral Commission has confirmed that the Labour Party did nothing wrong in accepting this donation, which is allowed under party funding rules.

"We accepted this donation in good faith, but once Catz Club were told that they had inadvertently breeched charity commission rules, we were asked to return the donation, something we were happy to do."