This morning’s Sunday Times reports that the Tories hid donations of £40,000 from Zac Goldsmith, his brother Ben and two billionaire brothers in an apparent breach of the law.
They say that the donations were recorded on official records as coming from Unicorn Administration, an intermediary company that helps run the finances of the super-rich.
But the paper reports that it has discovered that in fact they came from Zac Goldsmith, his brother Ben, and Ben’s wife Kate, a member of the Rothschild family. Another donation of £14,390 came from the Reuben brothers, property developers and aluminium tycoons who made a fortune in Russia:
Goldsmith, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park, correctly informed the party that payments of £12,310, channelled through a wealth management firm called Unicorn Administration, were from him.
There is no suggestion that any of the donors or Unicorn acted improperly. But the Tory party failed to tell the Electoral Commission, the official watchdog, even though electoral law makes it clear that the true source of funds must not be concealed.
Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said he would write to the Electoral Commission calling for an inquiry into the apparent breach of electoral law.
He questioned whether the registration of the donations by a proxy donor was due to error. “Back-door gifts through front companies blatantly break the spirit of the law on cleaning up Britain’s moneybags politics,” he said.
“If the Conservative party have nothing to hide, why not declare straight out they’re [Goldsmith's] thousands instead of using the cover of Unicorn Administration? It is hard to see how these can be simple errors. Why was there a pattern of donors using Unicorn before they made donations in their own name?”
The Conservative Party said it was an administrative error and that they are taking immediate steps to investigate it and rectify the declarations as necessary.
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