Britain’s elections watchdog came under fresh pressure last night to publish its probe into claims that Keir Starmer‘s chief of staff hid more than £700,000 in donations.
In 2021, the Electoral Commission fined the Labour Together think-tank run by Morgan McSweeney after identifying more than 20 breaches of election law relating to undeclared donations.
Last week the watchdog turned down requests for a fresh inquiry, despite the emergence of a leaked email in which a top Labour lawyer advised Mr McSweeney to portray the episode as an ‘admin error’.
Last night, the Tories urged it to publish its original report in full – pointing out that it bowed to Labour demands to release details of its inquiry into who paid for Boris Johnson‘s wallpaper in Downing Street.
The call came as fresh evidence emerged of the central role played by Labour Together in Sir Keir’s 2020 leadership campaign.
The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is considering whether to start a separate investigation into whether Sir Keir broke the MPs’ code of conduct when he failed to declare support from Labour Together during his 2020 campaign to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.
MPs must declare all support worth more than £1,500 in cash or in kind. A Labour source said: ‘Neither Keir nor his leadership campaign accepted monetary or in-kind donations from Labour Together during the election.’
But the Tories have submitted evidence that Mr McSweeney served as Sir Keir’s campaign manager while still a director of Labour Together.
The Electoral Commission fined the Labour Together think-tank run by Morgan McSweeney after identifying more than 20 breaches of election law relating to undeclared donations
Calls for the watchdog probe to be published came as fresh evidence emerged of the central role played by Labour Together in Sir Keir Starmer’s 2020 leadership campaign
Mr McSweeney is pictured working at the now-Prime Minister’s campaign HQ in 2020
The think-tank has boasted it ‘helped rally the party membership behind Keir Starmer’.
Mr McSweeney is thought to have given access to polling data worth hundreds of thousands of pounds for his campaign.
A leaked email seen by the Daily Mail reveals the issue was discussed by the think-tank’s board.
Minutes of a meeting in December 2020 record businessman Sir Trevor Chinn saying Labour Together ‘played a significant role in electing the leadership of the Labour Party’.
It was attended by Steve Reed, now Housing Secretary. The minutes were copied to Andrew Whyte, a former Electoral Commission official who became Labour’s ‘director of governance and legal’.
Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘From Morgan McSweeney’s cover-up of a £740,000 slush fund used to install Starmer as leader, to leaked messages about donations, and now open bragging of Labour Together’s shady behind-the-scenes role, the evidence of a cover-up is beyond clear.
‘We will continue to call for the release of the Electoral Commission’s report.’
The commission said it did ‘not routinely produce detailed reports on cases, but may occasionally publish a summary when a particularly complex investigation requires more detail. No such summary was produced in this instance’.
