Just days before Labour politicians head to Liverpool for the party’s annual conference, a story about Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff has been dominating headlines. It emerged that the Labour Together founder’s lawyer advised Morgan McSweenet that he should mark £700,000 of undisclosed donations as an ‘admin error’, according to a leaked document from 2021 published by the Conservatives on Tuesday. But today, the Electoral Commission has announced it will not be probing the case. How interesting…
Over the time McSweeney ran the think tank, more than £700,000 of donations were not properly registered – including a whopping £100,000 gifted to the think tank while McSweeney was running Starmer’s Labour leadership campaign in 2020. After McSweeney stepped down from the role, his successor informed the Electoral Commission that the donations had not been reported – and a probe began. Labour’s lawyer Gerald Shamash got involved, and contacted McSweeney to tell him there was ‘no easy way’ to explain the failure to disclose the donations – especially since then then-Labour Together director had already been told by the Electoral Commission to declare any donations totalling more than £7,500.
The Conservatives got hold of emails between McSweeney and Shamash that saw the lawyer advise Starmer’s now-chief of staff that it was ‘perhaps best’ if the problem was put down to an ‘admin error’. The Tories have urged the Electoral Commission to probe McSweeney again – but today the organisation said it ‘found no evidence of any other potential offences’ and concluded: ‘We are therefore not reopening the investigation.’
The Tories have hit back, releasing a scathing statement that calls on the Commission release more documentation relating to the donations. Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake fumed:
The Electoral Commission’s decision not to investigate McSweeney is wrong. The Commission must now publish all of their Morgan McSweeney Files to ensure the public has full transparency.
This is not over. We will continue to reveal more evidence, and continue to push for a full investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into Keir Starmer. The British public deserve the full truth, not another cover-up, and the Conservatives will continue to fight until they get that.
The gloves are coming off…
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