Labour: Tories must come clean over elite donors

Labour has attacked the Conservatives over reports it ran an "elite" club for its biggest party donors, giving them direct access to the PM and chancellor.

Newspaper reports claimed financial backers would pay £250,000 to the party to become members of the so-called secret "advisory group".

Labour's party chair Anneliese Dodds, said the Tories must "come clean" and publish the list of ministers involved.

The Tories said government policy was "in no way influenced" by donations.

The party's co-chair, Amanda Milling added: "All political parties raise money and accept donations in order to pay their staff and campaign in elections."

The Financial Times reported the exclusive club was developed by the Conservative's other co-chair, Ben Elliot, to connect Tory supporters with senior figures.

As a result, regular meetings and calls were said to be held between the group's members, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

Businessman and Tory donor Mohamed Amersi told the newspaper it was a "very elite" membership with people required to "cough up £250,000 per annum or be a friend of Ben".

Following the reports, Labour's Ms Dodds called for more information to be put into the public domain about the purpose of the board and who it had benefited.

In a letter to Ms Milling, she said a full list of all donors who have paid to be members should be published, alongside details of all government ministers who have attended any meetings with them.

She wrote: "The Conservative Party needs to come clean on what access this group had, what they used that access to lobby for, and why it appears that there is one rule for high-ranking Conservatives and another rule for everyone else.

"The way that Boris Johnson and his friends operate seems to be not about what is right but what they can get away with, blurring the boundaries between public and private life.

"There are now serious questions for the Conservative Party to answer about their fundraising techniques."

Responding to the letter, Ms Milling pointed to Labour's own fundraising, saying they had taken just over £1.2m from trade union Unite in the past year.

She added: "If political parties didn't have a fundraising system in place they would be forced to use taxpayers money.

"Government policy is in no way influenced by the donations the party receives - they are entirely separate."

The party's co-chair said all donations were "properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission".