Tories are accused of trying to ‘buy votes’ (From The Bolton News)

Tories are accused of trying to ‘buy votes’

10:34am Friday 5th March 2010 in

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BOLTON MP David Crausby has accused his Conservative rival of trying to “buy votes” ahead of the forthcoming General Election.

Mr Crausby, who represents Bolton North East, says he is concerned that cash from Conservative vice-chairman Lord Ashcroft is being used to fund a lavish election campaign for his rival Deborah Dunleavy.

This week Lord Ashcroft provoked anger among rival parties after he finally admitted that he was classified as a “non-dom” for tax purposes, meaning he avoided paying tax on millions of pounds earned abroad.

In the wake of Lord Ashcroft’s admission, Mr Crausby has written to Ms Dunleavy demanding to know how much of Lord Ashcroft’s money has been spent on her pre-election campaign.

Mr Crausby said: “It is a very un-level playing field. There is a lot of money going into the campaign for Bolton North East but I am confident that the people in the constituency will see through all that.

“They are more concerned about issues such as children’s centres and hospitals.”

He added: “People are entitled to contribute what they want to whichever political party they want.

“But they lose that entitlement, in my eyes, when they do not pay tax on that money, money that could have helped pay for schools and hospitals.”

Ms Dunleavy denied she had received any funding directly from Lord Ashcroft, or his Bearwood Corporate Services, although she did acknowledge that the company did contribute a small amount to the central election campaign fund. In a statement to The Bolton News, she said: “The support candidates receive from voluntary donations to Conservative HQ goes some way to off-setting the huge financial advantage enjoyed by incumbent MPs such as David Crausby, who are able to spend £10,400 of taxpayers’ money every year promoting themselves to voters through the Communications Allowance — which a Conservative Government has pledged to scrap.

“Frankly, I’m astounded by Labour’s hypocrisy on this issue. Some of their own biggest donors are ‘non-doms’ – including for example the £10.5 million in donations from ‘non-doms’ such as Lord Paul, who was made a Privy Counsellor following his donations of £69,250 to Gordon Brown and Labour, and Sir Ronald Cohen, who gave more to the Labour Party last year than Bearwood gave to the Conservatives.”