Thread by @allthecitizens

🚨NEW: £20m in donations have been given to the Conservatives from opaque dining societies, business collectives and members clubs since 2010, 68% coming from just 29 groups, @BylineBITE and @allthecitizens can reveal. THREAD.

Donations from unincorporated associations (UAs) to the Conservative Party, groups which often don’t declare membership, climbed to £20 million over the last decade. Vastly outpacing donations from similar groups to other parties.

Our research shows that while Labour have secured £8.5 million, the Lib Dems £5.2 million, the Conservatives have amassed £20 million, mostly from just 29 orgs, many of which are exclusive members clubs, dining societies, and opaque collectives of Tory voting business interests.

UAs are defined as collective organisations not registered by other means (for example a company or trade union) and Electoral Commission rules state that any donation given by members over £7,500 must be registered if the UA ‘donates more than £25,000 in a calendar year’.

The legislation was introduced in 2009 to try and regulate the flow of anonymous cash funnelled into politics from undisclosed individuals, although as research from Open Democracy suggests, the regulation has, in fact, done little to address this.
opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

Members’ can still donate in secrecy under this value, after which the club donates on their behalf.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-…

Following two recent scandals - Liz Truss wining and dining a delegation in a club owned by a donor, and Guy Opperman referring for investigation for accepting funds from a club with undisclosed membership - we look at some of the largest UAs funding the Tory campaign machine.

The United & Cecil Club is perhaps the most well known, with long-standing sizable contributions to candidates in marginal seats

Set up with the sole purpose of fundraising for Conservative causes, its contributions amount to over £1.1 million since 2010.
thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2014-0…

They often meet at the Carlton Club in St James’s - which itself donates - as well as in private Hotels across London.

The “spiritual home” of the Tories, the Carlton Club (and political committee) represent the 5th largest contributor to the party from these elite societies, having donated £478,510.
theguardian.com/business/comme…

Two groups featured are controlled by Surrey Heath Conservative Association, in Michael Gove’s constituency. The Magna Carta Club and Strangers Gallery, ranked 7th and 11th in terms of donations respectively, have between them given £269,500.

The Magna Carta Club, established in 1988 to “improve communications between Business and Political leaders”, is sponsored by him…

and The Strangers Gallery is a ‘luncheon club’ which offers the chance to “speak to the Rt Hon Michael Gove on a one-to-one basis”

Often the clubs take on the name of the year they were established, the 1900 Club for example does this, as do the Sixty-Six and 1964 Clubs, all of which donate to the Conservatives.

The 1900 is a part of old London’s Gentlemen's club network, whereas the 1964 Club describes itself as a group for people “who share common values and objectives with the Conservative Party and wish to see them elected”. The president is Chris Grayling.
the1964club.co.uk/about-1964-club

The Bournemouth-based Sixty-Six Club was established “in 1966 to support the local MP, at the time Sir John Eden”. Now chaired by MP Conor Burns, the group have donated a total of £157,068, and regularly host guests from in and around party leadership.
linkedin.com/pulse/sixty-si…

While contributions from older entities (Liskeard Club, Enterprise Club, and “world's oldest Conservative think tank” the Bow Group) have fallen out of fashion over the last decade, certain staples remain in the network of UAs feeding political campaigns…
bowgroup.org

The National Conservative Draws Society, chaired by Lord Smith of Hindhead, is the top funding org, donating almost £9.5 million. The group is made up of 20,000 members contributing £1 a week, a system other parties have but on nowhere near the same scale.
opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

Lord Smith also chairs The Assoc. of Conservative Clubs, containing est 1,100 orgs incorporating working men’s clubs, conservative & unionist clubs, breakfast, luncheon, supper groups, and prestigious constitutional clubs, and has donated £4m (inc £1.2m from the Assoc. directly)

While there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with UAs, the potential for widespread abuse and lack of transparency they encourage doesn’t seem to have been remedied by the 2009 legislation.

Firstly as anon donations through them still happen, secondly because the events hosted by them often themselves include other opportunities for alleged fundraising efforts...
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

As with high-value donors like Alexander Temerko (who paid £90k for a bronze bust of David Cameron), opacity at fundraisers hosted in lavish venues raises further Qs about a quid pro quo nature of elite societies, and whether they have a place in politics.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

At a 2019 event in Hurlingham Hall hosted by the outgoing Theresa May, donors could buy chances to have dinner with potential candidates. One even paid £40,000 for the prize of hosting a 100-person private champagne party at the London Cabaret Club...
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

(The London Cabaret Club incidentally has itself donated £125,000 to the Conservatives, while not being listed as an Unincorporated Association).

As columnist Simon Jenkins recently wrote in response to Truss’ insistence upon Hertford St -

Elsewhere, as with entities like the Leaders Group or Advisory Board, developed as a means of “connecting major Conservative backers with its top figures”, access to key policy makers in the forms of lunches and events is seemingly commonplace.
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

A problem with UAs so frequently being synonymous with the most prestigious and exclusive venues in the country is that, with the disproportionate reliance by the Conservatives on high-rolling benefactors, is that very often the exact same interests and faces overlap.

Famously, the Midlands Industrial Council, an old UA whose donations have waned recently, had donated a staggering £3m until being all but forced to reveal their names.

While not included in this total, members of it are also Leaders Group attendees, and individually have continued to donate a further £6.6m since unmasking.
metro.co.uk/2006/10/14/tor…

Several among them have also gone on to be awarded peerages under successive Tory governments, raising issues of potential cash-for-honours.

As @allthecitizens and @BylineBITE reported last September, more than a quarter of elite Conservative donors, those who’ve given more than £100,000 to the Party in a single donation, have gone on to receive a title or honour.

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1435957707643756546?s=20

While UAs are not exclusively a Conservative issue, that so much money changes hands, and that donors have the potential to buy access to politicians, adds to the already dismal lack of oversight on which this government thrives, from FOI requests to self-deleting messages.

The very real concern is that money afforded to the Conservatives from these groups continues to be wildly disproportionate, where decisions are made away from public scrutiny and the opinions and wallets of a few high-rollers takes precedence over the benefit to public good.

Read the full write-up from @MC_00_ in @BylineTimes below:
bylinetimes.com/2022/02/03/29-…