The Herald Express has taken our story of asking where the South Devon Conservatives get their money from, and run with it. Only to find that Tory Torbay wannabe MP Marcus Wood has used money inspired by non-dom dosh controversy figure Lord Ashcroft to fund his campaign drive.
Shocking to know that Marcus has spent ‘tens of thousands’ in the last five years on his campaigning, but he has, and apparently it went on a survey, canvassing and newsletters – and on a warp-around ad on the Weekender, a free-sheet published the Herald Express people themselves.
“I don’t know the exact amount, but it is all in the public domain,” Marcus told the paper. “I would say it was in the tens of thousands for the whole parliament (from 2005 to 2010).”
The money, says Marcus, did not come from Lord Ashcroft or his company Bearwood Corporate Services, but from Conservative Central office and a system set up by Lord Ashcroft to ‘level the playing field’.
Marcus told the Herald Express: “Conservative campaign headquarters offers financial support to candidates in marginal seats from a central fund, drawn from donations to the Conservative Party by thousands of individuals. Bearwood has contributed a tiny fraction of this fund.”
That’s funding from Bearwood to the tune of £5.1 million from February 2003 to December 2009
The Lord Ashcroft ‘war-chest’ money also went to Teignbridge Conservative Stanely Jonson’s failed election campaign in 2005 – to the tune of £25,000.
On the current campaign, a spokesman for the new Newton Abbot constituency wannabe Anne-Marie Morris said: “Newton Abbot Conservatives do not receive any funding directly from Lord Ashcroft. We do receive some financial support from our central office, however the overwhelming majority of the funds we raise and spend on local campaigning are raised through local fund raising activities and events and modest donations from our members and supporters.” Which echoes what the guy told us, when we asked how they fund their costly campaign.
Read the full article on thisissouthdevon.
• There’s too much money sloshing around in politics! Comments below, please.
Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!
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