McConnell personally arranged union cash donation

First Minister Jack McConnell personally negotiated the trade union donations that ended up with his Motherwell and Wishaw constituency Labour Party breaking the law on declaring financial contributions of more than (pounds) 1000.

The revelation that McConnell brokered the deal with the ISTC steel union, which involved an initial (pounds) 5000 donation and quarterly payments of (pounds) 375, links him closer to the accounting fiasco for which he states he has no responsibility.

The Labour Party last night insisted there was "nothing unusual" in an MSP or MP negotiating directly with trade union sponsors. But in a week in which the First Minister has sought to distance himself from the affair, the admission ties him directly to it.

In Motherwell and Wishaw, money was given by the ISTC to a local party "development fund", part of which was used by McConnell to help finance an unsuccessful leadership campaign bid in 2000. The breach of the law came when the local treasurer failed to register the donations with the electoral commission.

The latest twist in the affair, which has ensnared McConnell in allegations of financial irregularity for the last 11 days, was seized on by the SNP, who accused McConnell of "spins, half- truths and sins of omission".

SNP leader John Swinney said: "Jack McConnell has repeatedly led people to believe he was not personally involved with this money and this could not be further from the truth.

"The way forward now is for the electoral commission to conduct a full-scale inquiry into Labour's finances."

Labour has already ordered all its constituency treasurers to urgently comply with electoral commission rules after it was discovered that five constituency Labour parties had breached the law by not declaring donations of more than (pounds) 1000 to the commission. Another three broke the party's own rules on declaring donations of (pounds) 1000 or more.

Privately, McConnell has asked for an independent auditor to be called in to examine the Motherwell and Wishaw books. Under increasing pressure to clear his own name, he has also decided to follow through with his offer to submit financial records of his election campaign against Henry McLeish in October 2000 to the Scottish parliament authorities.

The accounts, which McConnell is confident are in order, will be seized on by opposition parties eager to prove he broke parliamentary guidelines by not declaring the (pounds) 200 he claimed from local party funds for the campaign in the MSPs' register of interests.

A spokesman for the SNP said: "John Swinney published his election campaign donations in his register of interests; Jack McConnell has chosen not to. He has promised to give full disclosure of all the money he spent fighting for the leadership. The question has to be asked why these words have not been followed up with action."

Although the affair is likely to dog McConnell right up until next May's election, opposition parties are reluctant to call for a parliamentary inquiry for two reasons.

MSPs would be prevented from debating the matter if it were to be scrutinised by the parliament's standards committee - and dragging the affair through the parliamentary arena for months also runs the risk of increasing voters' disenchantment in the run-up to the poll.

Copyright 2002
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