Posted on 02/21/2005 3:45:34 AM PST by oursouls
U.K. Conservatives Raise $37 Million to Fight Labour (Update1)
Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Britain's Conservatives have raised 19 million pounds ($37 million) for their campaign against Prime Minister Tony Blair, helped by the sale of two Margaret Thatcher portraits and a dinner by London chef Marco Pierre White.
``It's pretty healthy,'' Conservative Party Treasurer Jonathan Marland said in an interview at the party's newly built headquarters near Parliament. The funding is 78 percent of the legal spending limit and ``much better than four years ago, when the party received two large donations very near the election.''
Spending is limited to 22.89 million pounds, 7 million more than the 2001 vote. Conservative donors include Stuart Wheeler, former chairman of the spread-betting company IG Group Plc, who gave 504,000 pounds in 2003 and Michael Spencer, chief executive of ICAP Plc, the largest interbank broker. His Intercapital Private Group Ltd. unit has given 296,500 pounds since 2001.
Blair's Labour party holds a lead of 12 percentage points over the Conservatives ahead of the vote, the Independent reported Feb. 16, citing a survey by NOP Ltd. The poll put Labour support at 42 percent, compared with the Conservatives' 30 percent and 18 percent for the Liberal Democrats. No margin of error was given for the Feb. 11-13 survey of 953 adults.
Blair hasn't yet set the election date, though his deputy John Prescott has indicated it may take place on May 5.
Labour officials including Lord Michael Levy, the party's chief fundraiser, declined to comment on the amount raised so far. They also refused comment on a report in the Sunday Times on Feb. 6 that Labour may have to cut its funding target to 15 million pounds from 19 million pounds after its biggest source of financing, the labor unions, reduced contributions.
`Turnout Election'
The Conservatives, preparing for a race that Blair's Labour Party is calling a ``turnout election,'' have invested in marketing tools like call centers and the software used by U.S. President George W. Bush last year to target swing voters, Marland said.
While leading in the polls, Blair may lose his 161-seat parliamentary majority if turnout falls below the 2001 level of 60 percent, Labour research shows. The Conservatives are pledging to lower taxes and curb immigration while Blair says he will invest more in child care and hospitals.
The Electoral Commission tomorrow will say how much the parties raised in last year's fourth quarter.
In the first nine months last year, Labour raised 10.6 million pounds, the Conservatives 9.8 million and the Liberal Democrats 2.3 million, commission documents show.
New Methods
Turning to new fundraising methods, the Conservatives have earned 690,000 pounds from the sale of two portraits of Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative prime minister who ruled from May 1979 to November 1990. An oil study, admired by her late husband Sir Dennis, fetched 440,000 pounds at the party's Winter Ball while another sold for 250,000 pounds to Wheeler.
Last month, Marco Pierre White, Britain's first chef to be awarded three Michelin stars, and celebrity jockey Frankie Dettori raised 180,000 pounds with a dinner for musicians and athletes at their restaurant, Frankie's, near the London department store Harrod's.
U.K. election spending in 2001 totaled about 40 million pounds, according to the Electoral Commission. The Conservatives, who spent 12.75 million pounds to Labour's 10.9 million, lost the election by 9 percentage points.
The Conservatives focused on advertising, with spending of 4.4 million pounds, the commission said. About 2 million pounds went on rallies and other events. Spending by Labour was similar, with 5 million pounds going to advertising.
Third-Party Ads
Marland says he's banked 17 million pounds in cash for the Conservative campaign and has another 2 million pounds in written pledges. That puts the party on course to meet its target, said Matt Cain, co-author of a report on political funding for the Institute of Public Policy Research in London.
``They've got really close and my hunch is they've got much closer than the Labour Party,'' Cain said in a telephone interview.
Unlike the U.S., where third-party advertising helped lift campaign spending to $1.1 billion each for the Republicans and the Democrats, ``soft money'' donations are tightly controlled in the U.K., Cain said.
The Liberal Democrats, the third-biggest party, have increased funds compared with 2001, allowing them to compete in more seats, treasurer Reg Clark said in an interview.
Using networks of wealthy, ``liberal-minded'' individuals, they've signed up six of their biggest donors since the last election, said Clark. That means more than 90,000 pounds each, according to electoral commission records.
Breakfast Donations
Financial investors feature in the lists of all three parties. Ronald Cohen, the founder of private equity investor Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, said in an interview ``I'm doing all I can'' to support Labour's election campaign.
Conservative sponsors paid to eat breakfast with Lynton Crosby, the Australian election strategist hired by Michael Howard to use telephone marketing techniques to swing the polls in his favor.
Crosby has used some of the money to purchase two regional call centers, with two more planned, and to buy VoterVault, the U.S. marketing software that helped Bush's Republican party build profiles of voters and target them on election issues such as abortion or gun control.
`War Chest'
``The Tories are gathering a campaign war chest to talk down our achievements,'' Labour party chairman Ian McCartney wrote in an appeal to members for 1 million pounds to expand the party's national call center. ``We need to raise as much money and rally as many volunteers as we can.''
The unions, which traditionally financed 30 percent to 40 percent of Labour's budget, may remain Blair's best bet for funding, according to Justin Fisher, a professor of politics at Brunel University near London.
Though GMB, the party's biggest donor in 2001, last year withdrew 750,000 pounds from Labour's central election coffers, others, such as Transport & General and Unison, say they may yet donate before the election date.
``Unions grumble but they always come through in the end,'' Fisher said. ``The threat of a Conservative government is always enough for them to cough up.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=aQ8ACA9LfW5c&refer=uk
I am beginning to think we're headed towards a hung parliament. We live in very interesting times.
Regards, Ivan
I dont understand why the Tories dont run on keeping Britain from surrendering its independence to the EU, as well as tightening immigration.
They could try to awaken a slumbering nationalism to defeat Blair's apparent effort to hand the UK to the EU on a silver platter.
My instinct tells me that most Brits really dont want to be a province in a union controled by Germany, and France.
who leads the tories now? is he worth anything?
Michael Howard. No, he's not worth anything.
Regards, Ivan
oh, well. conservatives should be able to pull themselves together sometime in say the next 50 years.
It's always darkest before the dawn...and before every Dubya there's a Bob Dole. ;)
Regards, Ivan
My thinking is that a hung parliament could be the worst of all events, if Labour were to enter a coallition with the LibDems then P.R. might be the price paid - this would keep the Conservatives out for a generation.
A small Tory majority would be difficult, though I suspect that discipline would work (unlike '92-'97); crucially it would get Labour out of office which cannot be overstated.
A small Labour majority (under 20) would (in my opinion) be best. The back-benchers have got into the habit of rebelling, and the P.L.P. would be ungovernable. There would be an immediate power-struggle between Blair and Brown which would cripple the party. Another election is likely to follow shortly afterwards which could see a reasonable Tory majority.
A large Labour majority (which I still think most likely) would mean more of the same. At some point there will be a leadership election which will be quite bloody with Charles Clarke or someone similar taking on Gordon Brown. Either way the Labour Party will make a shift to the left at the insistence of the back-benchers and the activists nationally.
I agree that the Tories should not be in power with Michael Howard as leader. Your small Labour majority scenario is indeed the best one. However, I do think the Liberals are going to make gains at the expense of Labour this coming election - this leads me to think that a hung parliament is in the offing.
I could be wrong - I hope that I am.
Best Regards, Ivan
There will be a time to defeat Labor AFTER Blair retires voluntarily. Until then, backbone is hard to find since the Tories dumped the Iron Lady. Blair has been a good friend to the US. The Tories need to apologize for dumping Maggie and to regain their manhood on foreign policy.
"The Tories need to apologize for dumping Maggie...."
Who do they need to apologize to?
Maggie, for starters.
Regards, Ivan
lol
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