BOLTON Tories raised just £785 of the target figure of almost £5,000 for the Tories' General Election fighting fund last year.

Their paltry contribution came as the Party headed for its biggest ever landslide defeat this century.

Although the total figure was slightly better than the previous year's £600 contribution to the Tory Central Office funds, it was less than one sixth of the £4,937 asked for.

And the poor performance was mirrored elsewhere with the two Bury seats sending just a quarter of their £10,000 target, including a dramatic drop in the contribution from Bury North - lost by former Social Security Minister Alistair Burt - from £1,240 to just £280.

Bolton West - lost by ex-Home Office Minister Tom Sackville - raised just £380 or 0.9 per cent of its £4,205 target. But it was still an improvement on last year's performance, when not a single penny went to the fighting fund.

Bolton North East - lost by Robert Wilson - sent £608 to London - or 13.8 per cent of its £4,400 target and the safe Labour seat of Bolton South East sent just £39 to Central Office - 3.5 per cent of the £1,130 target figure. Overall the town's Tories sent £785 to the Central Office fighting fund - less than one sixth of the £4,937 target.

Bury should have sent £2,730 to Central Office, but provided less than a quarter (£523).

Bury North saw its performance drop to 4.6 per cent (£280) against last year's £1,240.

The best news came from Bury South, lost by David Sumberg to Labour, which sent £643 to Central Office - 5.4 per cent of its £4,651 target. Other local seats fared equally badly with Worsley sending 2.1 per cent of its £1,700 target, Leigh just 4 per cent of its target, Salford 5 per cent of its £998 target and Rossendale and Darwen 11.4 per cent of its £4,200 target.

The embarrassing figures were released on the first day of Tory Conference in Blackpool, with the North-west as a whole sending £94,887 - 36.7 per cent of its £258.799 target.

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