As I wrote earlier today, the commission have made their decision. Here is a link.
The commission has rejected the complaint by Labour MP John Mann which had claimed that Bearwood was in breach of electoral law because it was not trading in Britain when it donated money.
It’s good news for Ashcroft and the Tories – although both still have major questions to answer about the separate issue of why Hague and others only recently found out that the peer was a non-dom.
The key points:
* Bearwood Corporate Services “met permissibility requirements for making party donations”
* “No basis to conclude the donor was anyone other than BCS”
* “No breach”
* BCS, during the revelant period, did have a consultancy business, paid employees, business premises and cash reserves.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey