The Electoral Commission will not reopen its investigation into undeclared donations to campaign group Labour Together when it was led by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, the watchdog has said.
The Conservatives had called for a new probe into the handling of donations during Mr McSweeney’s time as Labour Together’s director, claiming leaked emails showed he had attempted to cover up the late reporting of donations as an administrative error.
But a spokesperson for the watchdog said it had found “no evidence of any other potential offences” and would not reopen its investigation.
Labour Together was fined £14,250 in September 2021 over late reporting of £740,000 of donations after the organisation had reported itself to the Electoral Commission.
Mr McSweeney had left his role in April 2020 to become a senior aide to Sir Keir Starmer in opposition and then in government.
But Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake urged the commission to launch a new investigation earlier this week, alleging Labour Together had “concocted” a “false excuse of administrative errors” to minimise its penalty and avoid bad publicity.
In a letter to the Electoral Commission, he said the implication of leaked emails reported by the Mail on Sunday was that Labour Together “chose not to report those donations” to stop the then Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party knowing “who was bankrolling their secretive political campaigning, and to keep their work below the political radar”.
But an Electoral Commission spokesperson said: “We have thoroughly reviewed this information and found no evidence of any other potential offences. We are confident that the initial determination and sanction were appropriate.
“We are therefore not reopening the investigation.”
They added that Labour Together’s fine had been “significant” and reflected “the seriousness of the offences determined, for which no reasonable excuse was put forward”.
Read More
