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Labour loses celebrity benefactors

Hamish Macdonell

LABOURS love affair with the rich and famous has soured, according to
official new statistics on political donations.

The figures showed West End impresario Sir Cameron Macintosh, who used to
give money to Labour, has switched sides and gave #10,000 to the Tories
earlier this year. Another major concern for Labour is the absence from
yesterdays donor list of a host of big-name celebrities who used to give
money to the party but failed to make sizeable donations in the crucial
election period.

The new rules which mean all major donors are named came into force in
February and some celebrities may have rushed donations through before this
deadline. But the new records show figures such as Jim Kerr, Pete Townshend,
Peter Gabriel and Lisa Stansfield from the music industry and Felix Dennis,
Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack from other sections of the entertainment
industry, have not donated sizeable sums since then.

Their decision not to donate to the party during this time suggest Labours
relationship with celebrities has cooled to its worst state for many years.

Sir Camerons defection represents a major coup for the Tories and follows
the high-profile falling-out between the Labour Party and a number of major
players in the entertainment industry, including music promoter Alan McGee,
author Ken Follett, musician Noel Gallagher and actors Ross Kemp and Neil
Pearson.

However, the evidence that Labour is failing to hold on to financial support
from other glamorous showbusiness backers, who have remained loyal to the
party, will worry Tony Blair and his fund-raisers, particularly as they are
trying to pay off an overdraft run up during this years election.

A Labour Party spokeswoman claimed the statistics published by the Electoral
Commission yesterday only covered just a small period and donations for the
whole year would give a more rounded picture, but this would not be
available until October.

She said: "This report covers just April to June, a very small part of the
electoral cycle."

But this did little to appease the partys critics who claimed that the era
of "Cool Britannia", heralded by Tony Blair on his arrival in Downing Street
in 1997, is over.

A spokesman for the SNP said: "This just highlights the 24-carat gold
policies promised by Tony Blair have been found out by his high-flying
donors to consist of nothing more than tarnished gold plating."

All political donations of #1,000 or more to constituency parties and #5,000
or more to party headquarters have to be declared to the Electoral
Commission.

The statistics showed that the Tories took in more than twice as much money
as Labour in large donations, almost #12.4 million over the three months
compared to Labours #5.3 million. The bulk of the Tory fund for the partys
ill-fated election campaign was donated by three multi-millionaires.
Philanthropist Sir Paul Getty gave #5m and #2,450,000 came spread-betting
magnate Stewart Wheeler.

Another #1 million came from Norbrook Laboratories, the veterinary product
firm of businessman and Irish senator Dr Edward Haughey.

Most of Labours donations - almost #3.8 million - came from trade unions
with the most generous donors being the Communication Workers Union (just
over #1 million), AEEU (#813,241), GMB (#497,620) and USDAW (#430,108).

Some high-profile backers continued to support the party financially during
the election. These included comedians Eddie Izzard (#10,000) and Richard
Wilson (#6,500), playwright Michael Frayn (#10,000) publisher and HMV Group
boss Tim Waterstone (#12,000) and author John OFarrell (#2,000).

Sir Cameron Macintosh was unavailable to comment on his defection.

The Scottish National Party have problems of their own, which were exposed
in the report. The Nationalists have registered just four donations since
the new rules came into force, totalling just #38,400.

The SNPs most famous backer, the actor Sir Sean Connery, was absent from
the list because the new rules prevent him from giving money to the party.

Sir Sean usually gives #1,000-a-week to the SNP and a party spokesman
confirmed that his contribution for the whole year was received before the
deadline.

However, the actor will have to register to vote in Britain if he wants to
continue giving money to the party next year.

Alex Salmond, the former leader of the SNP, denied he was concerned: "We don
t have large donations and if we had relied on big donations we would have
gone out of business 50 years ago. We have thousands of people giving us
small donations "

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
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