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The party blamed an administrative error for not declaring the sum, revealed as part of a joint investigation between Tortoise and BBC R4’s The Naked Week
Labour has failed to declare a five-figure donation received by a Cabinet minister during the election campaign, an apparent breach of electoral law.
Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary and Labour MP for Swindon South, accepted £15,000 from a firm called OPD Group Limited via her local constituency. She declared this on the members’ register of interest last July.
However, a joint investigation by Tortoise and BBC Radio 4’s new Friday night topical satire show The Naked Week, found that Labour has not declared the sum to the Electoral Commission, potentially in breach of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.
A Labour Party spokesperson blamed an “administrative error” for the failure, adding it had been “swiftly rectified” after being alerted to the issue.
The Electoral Commission said: “As part of work to ensure there is transparency for voters, we carry out a number of compliance and reporting checks, and this will be looked at as part of that ongoing process. It should be noted they do not always indicate a breach.”
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Alexander, who did not respond to a request for comment.
OPD Group Limited is part of a series of firms ultimately owned by millionaire recruitment mogul Peter Hearn, although the ‘person with significant control’ is listed as OPD Group Holdings Ltd on Companies House.
According to its most recent set of accounts, OPD employs just four people; it has not declared a profit for some time.
Hearn said this was because OPD was an investment vehicle, but said he “absolutely” believed in the importance of transparency in political financing.
Rose Whiffen, senior research officer at Transparency International UK, told Tortoise: “While it is commendable that the MP has complied with their obligations under the parliamentary code, it’s concerning that the party hasn’t met its own obligations under political financing laws.
“This case also highlights ongoing concerns about the opacity of certain corporate donors and the potential for complex ownership structures to obscure the true source of political funding.”
The UK government is coming under renewed pressure to reform political finance rules, with plans being drawn up in Whitehall to tighten how much individuals and companies can donate to political parties.
On Thursday, MPs discussed the “urgent” need to strengthen the system, calling on ministers to take “immediate action to close legal loopholes”.
Recommendations put forward include capping political donations, ensuring corporate donations only come from UK profits and improving checks on donations made by unincorporated associations and increasing fines for breaches to £500,000 per offence.
Currently the Electoral Commission is only able to impose a maximum £20,000 fine.
Sources told Tortoise that legislative proposals, including to ensure corporate donations only come from UK profits, were “on the table”, and were expecting a new bill to be brought forward in the next parliamentary session.
This is the first of a series of investigations into the effectiveness of UK regulators by Tortoise and BBC Radio 4’s The Naked Week, a new satirical series in the Friday Night Comedy 18.30 slot, hosted by Andrew Hunter Murray.
To hear the full investigation, listen to The Naked Week, produced for BBC Radio 4 by Unusual Productions, on air today from 18.30 on BBC Radio 4 and then on BBC Sounds in the Friday Night Comedy podcast feed.
Use our Westminster Accounts tool to search for your MP to see what donations they’ve received.
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