History > 2007 > UK > Politics (I)

No one to face charges

in cash for honours inquiry

· Decision clears three who were arrested
· 16-month probe cost £800,000

Friday July 20, 2007
Guardian
Vikram Dodd and Patrick Wintour

The Crown Prosecution Service has told Scotland Yard that no charges will be brought against the three people arrested in the cash for honours inquiry, bringing to an end a 16-month inquiry that cost £800,000 and rocked the Labour party.

Police had arrested Labour's chief fundraiser Lord Levy, another close No 10 aide and a millionaire donor during the inquiry but yesterday they were told by the CPS that there was an unrealistic prospect that the evidence would lead to a conviction. Senior Scotland Yard figures were said to strongly disagree.

Labour could last night only thinly hide their fury with the police for pursuing the investigation which dogged the last year of the Tony Blair premiership. One Labour insider said: "Gordon [Brown] will be magnanimous. But behind the scenes we're apoplectic. Serious questions will be asked. It's been so damaging. The investigation was ... nuts."

The criminal investigation started with a complaint by Angus MacNeil, a Scottish National party MP. Most politicians at Westminster had initially thought the police investigation would not have serious consequences, but were aghast when Lord Levy, then Mr Blair's Downing Street aide, Ruth Turner, and a Labour donor, Sir Christopher Evans were arrested.

Police believed they had found evidence of honours being traded for cash by Labour, and of an attempt to thwart the police investigation.

The £800,000 police investigation into the heart of government was unprecedented in British politics; last night its effective collapse sent shockwaves through Westminster, the police, and the criminal justice system.

The criminal investigation saw Mr Blair become the first sitting prime minister to be interviewed by police as part of a criminal investigation. In the end he was questioned three times as a witness.

John McTernan, the former No 10 director of political operations, said he was "massively relieved as are most of our colleagues. We were put under the spotlight and there was no possibility of replying because we were subject to an inquiry.

"I do not think any of us were worried in the sense that we had done nothing wrong, but we were cooperating with the police inquiry."

The CPS had to decide two issues before proceeding with prosecutions. They decided a prosecution would be in the public interest, but after examining the evidence came to the view there was not a realistic prospect of a jury convicting.

Police insist their investigation was by the book. One Whitehall source with knowledge of the investigation said: "The legislation is complex. The police found evidence, I think the CPS bottled it."

One key piece handed to the team was a diary kept by Sir Christopher referring to him and Lord Levy "discussing a "K or a P"; he admitted he meant a "knighthood or peerage". In an open letter in March Sir Christopher said he talked to the peer several times: "He ... was speculating whether I might one day be awarded a knighthood or be offered a peerage." But, he went on: "Were conversations also about making donations to the party? Of course they were ... did he ever promise me anything in return? No. Never."

In recent days those close to Mr Blair had become increasingly confident that the police inquiry would end with the CPS deciding there should be no charges. In advance of the announcement, Mr Blair ordered his former aides not seek retribution from the police or in the words of one of his allies to "do a Campbell" a reference to the way Alastair Campbell, former No 10 press secretary attacked the BBC in the wake of being cleared by the Hutton report into the death of David Kelly, the government scientist.

Mr Blair was convinced he had done nothing wrong. He was clear he had never suggested any honour should be traded for loans but was angry at the way in which the inquiry undermined his adminstration.

    No one to face charges in cash for honours inquiry, G, 20.7.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/cashforhonours/story/0,,2130915,00.html

5.15pm update

'I am ready to serve'


Sunday June 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Deborah Summers, politics editor

Gordon Brown today accepted the "awesome responsibility" of leadership as he was crowned the new Labour party chief.

After the briefest of introductions from the outgoing prime minister, Tony Blair, Mr Brown set out his plans for the future of Britain.

"It is with humility, pride and a great sense of duty that I accept the privilege and the great responsibility of leading our party and changing our country," the chancellor told delegates gathered at a special Labour party conference in Manchester.

Mr Brown promised to renew people's trust in government and confirmed that the NHS would be his "immediate priority".

In a string of new announcements, Mr Brown pledged:

· New protection for vulnerable workers
· To strengthen and enhance of the Department for International Development
· Douglas Alexander to be general election coordinator
· Parliament to vote on "all the major issues of our time"
· Housing minister to attend cabinet
· New deputy leader to be party chair

The chancellor - who has waited more than 10 years for this moment - must wait just three more days, until Tony Blair steps down on Wednesday, before he becomes prime minister of Great Britain.

He began his speech by thanking Mr Blair "who for 10 years has borne the burden of leadership of our country".

The two men earlier shook hands on stage as delegates stood and cheered.

"Tony Blair's achievements are unprecedented, historic and enduring," Mr Brown said.

He also paid tribute to former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and the outgoing deputy prime minister, John Prescott - who received two standing ovations from delegates.

The chancellor congratulated Harriet Harman, who was earlier elected deputy leader of the Labour party by the narrowest of margins.

"We know there is a worthy successor in Harriet Harman who has done so much to increase women's representation in parliament," Mr Brown said.

In what will be seen as an attempt to show his softer side, Mr Brown talked about the rugby injury he sustained at the age of 16 that cost him his sight in one eye.

"All I believe and all I try to do comes from the values that I grew up with: Duty, honesty, hard work, family and respect for others," he said.

Mr Brown insisted he was "a conviction politician".

"The party I lead must have more than a set of policies - we must have a soul," he said.

In 2007 housing is a priority, Mr Brown said.

"The housing minister will attend cabinet and will lead the national debate on the new homes we must build."

Mr Brown said education would be "the great liberating force of our generation", but the NHS would be his "immediate priority".

He continued: "I believe in a British economy founded on dynamic, flexible markets and open competition. But for workers undercut by employers in the country who break the law by paying less than the minimum wage we will act - new protection for vulnerable workers. That's what I mean by safeguarding and advancing the British way of life."

On foreign policy, Mr Brown acknowleged that Iraq had been "a divisive issue" for the party and the county.

"In Afghanistan and in the Middle East, we will meet our international obligations, we will learn lessons that need to be learned and at all times be unyielding in support for our dedicated armed forces."

Mr Brown pledged to strengthen and enhance the work of the Department for International Development and align aid, debt relief and trade policies to wage an "unremitting battle against poverty, illiteracy, disease and environmental degradation that it has fallen to our generation to eradicate".

The prime minister-in-waiting also announced that Douglas Alexander, the transport secretary, would be the new general election coordinator.

"Don't let anyone tell you the choice at the next election will be change with other parties and no change with Labour. Because when I take office on Wednesday I will, as our party has always done, heed and lead the call of change...

"This week marks a new start. A chance to renew. And I say to the people of Britain, The new government I well lead belongs to you.

"I will work hard for you. I shall always try my utmost. I am ready to serve."

Mr Brown received a standing ovation has he was joined on stage by Ms Harman and his wife, Sarah.

    'I am ready to serve', O, 24.6.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gordonbrown/story/0,,2110293,00.html

Weatherill,

British Commons Leader,

Dies

May 7, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:01 p.m. ET
The New York Times

LONDON (AP) -- Lord Weatherill, who ushered Britain's House of Commons into the television age and was the last speaker to wear the traditional shoulder-length wig, died Sunday. He was 86.

Bernard Weatherill, who presided in the house from 1983 to 1992, died Sunday following a brief illness, his son Bruce said Monday.

He presided when the cameras were switched on in 1989 and, to his amusement, it made him a celebrity.

''I often say I'm not in the entertainment business,'' Weatherill said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1991. ''This is a workshop.''

He was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative in 1964, and was elevated to the House of Lords in 1992.

The son of a Savile Row tailor, he carried a thimble in his pocket because his mother said it would keep him humble. He was the last speaker to wear the traditional shoulder-length wig -- a tradition dropped by his successor, Betty Boothroyd.

Weatherill was in the speaker's chair when Geoffrey Howe delivered the speech that precipitated Thatcher's downfall. Howe's November 1990 resignation from the Cabinet over Thatcher's Euroskeptic policies -- which he said had forced him into a ''tragic conflict of loyalties'' -- sparked a challenge to Thatcher's leadership that led her to resign.

''Here you saw effectively a bloodless coup,'' Weatherill recalled. ''It was a great parliamentary occasion none of us will ever, ever forget.''

Weatherill is survived by his wife Lyn, two sons and a daughter.

    Weatherill, British Commons Leader, Dies, NYT, 7.5.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Obit-Weatherill.html

Election results 2007 UK Local councils

The Guardian        p. 30        5.5.2007

No article

First moves in coalition courtships are under way

· Labour cannot 'soldier on alone', says party leader

· Tories admit that rainbow alliance is a possibility

Steven Morris        Guardian        p. 8        Saturday May 5, 2007

http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2007/05/05/pages/ber8.shtml

Divided nation:

How the elections

have fractured

the political landscape of Britain

Published: 05 May 2007
The Independent
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor

Britain emerged from Thursday's elections as a divided nation after the Scottish National Party (SNP) became the largest party in the Scottish Parliament, Labour lost ground in the south of England and the Tories failed to make a major breakthrough in the North.

A dramatic election in Scotland saw the SNP win a knife-edge victory last night over Labour by 47 seats to 46, inflicting Labour's first significant defeat north of the border for 50 years. The poll was overshadowed by a fiasco in which up to 100,000 ballot papers were disqualified amid confusion among voters and problems with a new electronic counting system.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, claimed he had the "moral authority" to govern and that Labour did not. "Scotland has changed for good and for ever," he said, adding: "Labour will never again be able to assume a divine right to rule Scotland." He promised an independent judicial inquiry into the voting scandal.

The historic victory by a party committed to pulling Scotland out of the United Kingdom was a crushing blow for Labour and could cast a dark cloud over Gordon Brown's first months as Prime Minister. It could provoke huge tensions between the Government and the Edinburgh parliament ­ and demands from English voters to allow Scotland to break away.

Mr Salmond, who is determined to become Scotland's First Minister, will try to reach agreement on a "progressive coalition" with another party but if he fails, he could seek to govern as a minority administration.

Labour could try to cling on to power by striking a deal with the Liberal Democrats to keep the SNP out. A weekend of frantic horse-trading is in prospect. Jack McConnell, who was Labour's First Minister going into the elections, said the parties had a responsibility to keep "all options open and consider what is best for Scotland". But a renewed Lib-Lab coalition would enrage the SNP.

In its traditional heartland in Wales, Labour's vote declined to 32 per cent, its lowest level since 1918. It remains the largest party in the Welsh Assembly but will need the support of another party to run it. Labour is expected to hold coalition talks with the Liberal Democrats next week.

After Tony Blair's last election as Labour leader, the coalition which propelled him to power in 1997 is in danger of fracturing. Senior Labour figures admitted the party was suffering from the same "southern discomfort" which denied it victory in the 1980s and early 1990s when it failed to win parliamentary seats in the south of England.

The new electoral map of Britain showed that Labour had been completely wiped out in 89 local authority areas, many of them in the south of England ­ a potential threat to Labour's hopes of retaining its parliamentary seats in the region. Plymouth and Gravesham, two of Labour's last councils in the South outside London, were seized by the Tories.

David Cameron went on a whistle-stop tour of the North-west yesterday to trumpet Tory gains in the region as a "real breakthrough", saying his party now controlled more authorities after gaining power in Chester, South Ribble and Blackpool. "We are now the party of the whole country, winning in every part of the country, winning against Labour, winning against the Liberal Democrats," he said.

However, election experts said the Tories' progress was more modest than the party claimed, pointing out that it failed to capture key targets such as Bury and Bolton. Senior Tories admitted their performance had been " patchy. The party still lacks a single councillor in Liverpool, Manchester or Newcastle.

The Tories gained more than 850 seats in England and claimed they now have their biggest number of councillors since 1978 when changes to the structure of local government are taken into account.

With results in from 309 of the 312 councils, the Tories had taken control of 38 more councils. Labour was down by 485 councillors, losing control of eight authorities. The Liberal Democrats lost 242 councillors and four town halls slipped out of their grasp.

Mr Cameron's party suffered a setback when the BBC revised down its projection of the Tories' national share of the vote from 41 per cent to 40 per cent, the same as in last year's local elections. It put Labour on 27 per cent, up one point on last year, and the Liberal Democrats on 26 per cent (down one point).

Politicians acknowledged that the nation had become a "divided kingdom" while putting the best possible gloss on their own party's results.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, said: "The truth of the matter is that you have to be able to win in all areas if you are going to have a sustainable government. For many, many years the problem Labour had was that we couldn't win in the south of England. The problem David Cameron has now is that he cannot reach outside the shire counties to the sort of places like Crewe, Bolton, Bury or Manchester."

The Liberal Democrats had a disappointing election, losing more than 240 seats in England and provoking fresh speculation about the position of their leader Sir Menzies Campbell. Senior party officials said they had been squeezed in rural wards in the South, but had been more successful against Labour in the northern cities.

The Tory gains at the Liberal Democrats' expense in the South will ring alarm bells in the third party as it could put some of its parliamentary seats at risk at the general election; 33 of the Liberal Democrats' 63 MPs represent seats that were held by the Tories before the 1997 general election.

Despite the defeat in Scotland, Labour was relieved that it avoided a meltdown in England. Mr Blair insisted it had been "a dreadful set of results" for the Liberal Democrats and the Tories had not made the breakthrough they had sought.

"Everyone said we were going to get hammered, it was going to be a rout, but in fact it's not turned out like that," he told reporters. " You always take a hit in the midterm but these results provide a perfectly good springboard to go on and win the next general election."

Mr Brown insisted that Labour had fought back in Scotland after being earlier written off. He added: "To all those who came back to Labour ­ and to everyone throughout Britain ­ my resolve is that we, the Labour Party, will listen and we will learn as we continue to work for and serve the people of Britain."

Sir Menzies acknowledged the elections had delivered a "mixed bag" for his party but insisted he had "one or two very good results to be cheerful about". He declared he would lead his party into the general election.

The results

* SCOTLAND (Seats +/-)
SNP: 47 (+20)
Labour: 46 (-4)
Conservatives: 17 (-1)
Liberal Democrats: 16 (-1)
Others: 3 (-14)
Total: 129

* ENGLAND (Councils, after 309 of 312 counted)
Conservatives: 162 (+38)
Labour: 34 (-8)
Liberal Dems: 23 (-4)
Others: 5 (0)
NOC: 85 (-26)

* WALES (Seats)
Labour: 26 (-4)
Plaid Cymru: 15 (+3)
Conservatives: 12 (+1)
Liberal Democrats: 6 (0)
Others: 1 (0)
Total: 60

    Divided nation: How the elections have fractured the political landscape of Britain, I, 5.5.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2514308.ece

Big gains but 'taxi vote' unconvinced

· Tories gain 800 seats with best vote share since 1992

· 35 more councils but little progress in northern cities

Will Woodward, chief political correspondent        Guardian        p. 6        Saturday May 5, 2007

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/story/0,,2073019,00.html

Labour’s election calamity

May 5, 2007
Philip Webster, Political Editor
From The Times

Gordon Brown was preparing last night to take the Labour leadership after his party lost its half-century of dominance in Scotland to the Nationalists and hundreds of council seats in Middle England to David Cameron.

With the SNP now the largest party in his own backyard, the Chancellor learns today that he is almost certain to face no heavyweight challenge for Tony Blair’s crown.

Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, told The Times that he would not be standing against Mr Brown and would serve in a Brown government if asked.

“I am not going to run in the leadership election. I was ready to run. I was considering running. I think I would have had the support to be nominated and be able to run,” he said. But there would have been the possibility of division around personalities that would be damaging. “There is not the appetite for that kind of contest in the party at the moment,” he said.

Mr Clarke’s conciliatory tone is good news for the Chancellor. But the scale of the task facing him became clear as the Conservatives gained more than 870 seats in the English council elections, inflicting severe electoral blows on the Liberal Democrats as well as Labour. Labour also surrendered overall control of the Welsh Assembly.

It lost nearly 500 seats in the English elections, the kind of reverses it had expected. Mr Brown promised last night that he would “listen and learn” after the SNP took 47 seats to Labour’s 46 in the Scottish Parliament, paving the way for a prolonged period of bargaining as an administration is formed.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader and prospective First Minister, said: “Never again will the Labour Party think that it has a divine right to government.”

Labour is also facing accusations that it ran the elections incompetently in Scotland. Huge problems with the electronic voting system led to an unprecedented number of spoilt ballot papers, with as many as 100,000 votes being wasted. The Electoral Commission launched an inquiry into the chaos last night.

It was an equally bad night for the Liberal Democrats, who lost more than 250 seats, a totally unexpected result at this stage of a Parliament. The outcome led to discreet rumblings last night over Sir Menzies Campbell’s leadership style. He said he had always known that the elections would be “tough” and called the results a “mixed bag”.

Mr Cameron said that his party had secured a “stunning” set of results expecially in the North of England. “We are the one national party speaking up for all of Britain . . . I think we can really build from this.” Mr Clarke’s announcement in The Times means that Mr Brown will at most now only face a token challenge from the Left. Asked whether he would serve in a Brown Cabinet, Mr Clarke replied: “Yes. I’ve enjoyed being in government . . . if it would be useful for me to serve I would like to do that.”

Mr Brown said: “Having been written off in Scotland a week ago, Labour has fought back and the vast majority of those who have voted have voted for a Scotland that maintains its rightful place in Britain.”

Alan Johnson became the first Cabinet minister yesterday to suggest that Mr Blair’s prolonged departure had not helped Labour’s position.

“You’re quite right to say about this interregnum in the leadership — I don’t think that’s helped us. I think Tony would say the same thing — it’s a period of drift. Until we get the new leadership team in place we’ll be in that period and I don’t think that’s helped.”

    Labour’s election calamity, Ts, 5.5.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1750074.ece

SNP claim victory, though power may yet elude them

Alex Salmond says he has 'moral authority' to govern,

and must now form rainbow coalition or rule with minority

Severin Carrell and Michael White        Guardian        p. 4        Saturday May 5, 2007

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/scotland/story/0,,2072966,00.html

Amid the chaos,

Scotland takes historic step

· SNP wins narrow victory
· Salmond seeks Lib Dem deal
· 100,000 ballots spoiled
· Tories gain ground in England

Saturday May 5, 2007
Guardian
Patrick Wintour, political editor

One of the most dramatic and chaotic post-war British elections reached a climax last night when the SNP became the largest party in Scotland, pipping Labour by one seat, and putting the country on an uncertain course towards independence.

Nineteen hours after the polls closed, and results had see-sawed, a disconsolate Labour conceded that the SNP had secured 47 seats to Labour's 46, a desperate setback for Gordon Brown in his backyard as he prepares to take over the premiership.

The SNP leader, Alex Salmond, staked his claim to become first minister, saying: "It is very clear indeed which party has lost this election and the Labour party no longer has any moral authority left to govern Scotland. Scotland has changed for ever and for good. Never again will we say that Labour party assumes it has a divine right to rule Scotland."

He promised to govern with humility and verve.

Labour's leader Jack McConnell did not concede his party was out of government, saying he will reflect over the weekend and look at all options. The SNP will try to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, and in talks at the weekend, Mr Salmond will offer to dilute his determination to hold a referendum on independence in 2010 by suggesting there could be additional questions con the ballot paper.

The most likely outcome is that he will be spurned by the Liberal Democrats and will have to try to govern alone in a minority administration.

The SNP advance, apparently slowed in the final days before the poll, came as a row blew up over 100,000 spoilt ballot papers, reflecting confusion among voters who had failed to understand voting forms. They had required electors to vote in two different ways for two different elections. The Scottish Office, including the Scottish Executive, had overruled independent advice that the local elections and elections to the Scottish parliament should not be held on the same day.

Mr Salmond promised that if he became first minister he would mount an independent judicial inquiry into how the democratic debacle had been allowed to happen, saying "the events will have offended every democrat in the country". The electoral commission also announced an inquiry. Gordon Brown is understood to be furious at the chaos but does not support a legal challenge to the result.

The misunderstandings were compounded by a breakdown of the electronic voting forms and some ballot papers having to be shipped from Western Isles after helicopters broke down.

The late SNP advance overshadowed a significant advance in the English local elections by David Cameron, including higher than expected net gains of 840 council seats. On a whistlestop tour of some his triumphs in Chester, Blackpool and Torbay, Mr Cameron said: "We are building our way back into the councils of cities across the country and right across the north of England.

The Tory share of the vote remained at around 40%, the same as last year's local elections. The party now has its largest number of councillors since 1978.

Labour, losing more than 460 seats, denied the result was a drubbing, and put it down to mid-term blues in a third term. In Wales Labour recorded its worst ever share of the vote of 32%, but lost only three seats, forcing the Labour Welsh leader, Rhodri Morgan, to seek a coalition pact with the Liberal Democrats.

Tony Blair, due to resign as party leader on Thursday, described his last electoral test as a perfectly good springboard to go on and win the next general election.

    Amid the chaos, Scotland takes historic step, G, 5.5.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/scotland/story/0,,2073146,00.html

The Guardian        p. 1        5.5.2007
 

7pm update

SNP wins historic victory

Friday May 4, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke, Rachel Willams and Hélène Mulholland

The Scottish National party tonight pulled off a historic coup to overturn Labour's dominance of Scottish politics.

The SNP became the largest single party in the Scottish parliament, winning 47 seats to Labour's 46. The Conservatives won 17 seats and the Liberal Democrats 16. Other parties won three seats.

Analysts predicted Mr Salmond could attempt to oversee a minority government rather than construct a coalition.

However, he said his preferred option was to form a coalition to provide stability and because it was the SNP's "obligation to reach out" to other parties.

Mr Salmond declined to say what attempts had already been made to form a coalition, but added that his party "would have a lot of talking to do" with other parties over the weekend.

He told the BBC that if he was chosen as first minister - any of the 129 Scottish MPs can put their name forward for the job - he would be "anxious" to work with Gordon Brown, who is likely to be the next prime minister.

Earlier, the SNP leader said Labour no longer had the "moral authority to run things".

If the results are confirmed by final counts, his party will have ended 50 years of Labour dominance north of the border - but no party will have an overall majority when the new session convenes.

Analysts predicted Mr Salmond could attempt to oversee a minority government rather than construct a coalition.

"Scotland has changed for good and for ever," he said earlier. "There may well be a Labour government and a Labour first minister in the future, but never again will we have Labour believe it has a divine right to rule Scotland."

"It's quite clear ... who's lost it [the Scottish election] - this government and the Labour party have no moral authority left for running things."

Mr Salmond has pledged a referendum on independence in 2010, while the other main parties are committed to keeping the 300-year-old union of England and Scotland.

The SNP leader - who came from third to win the Gordon seat, in north-east Scotland - also condemned the confusion that resulted in up to 100,000 spoilt ballot papers, saying he wanted a "rigorous and robust" investigation.

"The process of the election has profoundly unsettled Scotland and every Scot who believes in transparency and open democracy," he added.

He said he did not want to see "just an investigation, as the Electoral Commission proposes to do, but a rigorous ... independent judicial inquiry".

The commission launched an official inquiry after thousands of votes had to be discounted because they were classed as spoilt papers.

The problem was thought to have been caused by the Scottish parliament elections requiring voters to put an X in the box but local council elections - held under a new system called single transferable vote - asking people to rank their preferences by numbering boxes. The Tories also demanded an urgent explanation of what went wrong with the ballot system. "There are a number of questions that require answers," David Mundell, the shadow Scottish secretary, told Guardian Unlimited.

"Postal votes were unsatisfactory, some did not arrive on time, some were very late. The electoral system didn't work. Holding two very different elections on the same day was something we have always spoken out against.

"This situation was entirely predictable given what happened in the London mayoral elections."

Mr Mundell said the Scottish executive and Scotland Office had "got a lot to answer for, especially as they were advised not to run the two elections on the same day".

He said the number of spoilt papers "reduces confidence and trust in the whole process". The electoral commission said it would investigate the issue as a "matter of urgency".

Hitches with the new electronic counting system resulted in several counts being suspended, and it remained unclear who had won the knife-edge contests more than 12 hours after the polls closed. The Scotland Office said "serious technical failures" had occurred.

In some constituencies, the number of spoilt papers, thought to stem from confusion among voters, was higher than the majority achieved by the winning candidate.

The SNP's deputy leader, Nicola Sturgeon, finally beat Labour's Gordon Jackson in the Glasgow Govan constituency at her third attempt with a majority of 744, but 1,220 papers were rejected.

In Edinburgh Central, where the deputy environment minister, Sarah Boyack, led by 1,193 votes, there were 1,501 spoilt papers.

The number of spoilt papers in Airdrie and Shotts was 1,536, while the Labour majority over the SNP was just 1,446. Meanwhile in Glasgow Baillieston, the total number of rejected papers - 1,850 - made up more than 10% of the votes accepted.

The problems were thought to have arisen because voters were confused at having two ballot papers, for both the Holyrood poll and council elections.

The parliamentary election required them to vote using a cross, while the council ballot, conducted under the single transferable vote method of proportional representation, asked voters to list their first three votes in order of preference.

In addition, the Holyrood contest had two separate elements - first past the post, and then a top-up regional list, where voters cast a preference for party only, not candidate.

"At the end of the day, you've got voters who have been disenfranchised because they didn't get their postal votes in time," the Liberal Democrat Scottish spokeswoman, Jo Swinson, said.

"And then you've then got the voters, up to 1,000 and more in each constituency, whose votes have been discounted because of uncertainty. This does need to be looked at in detail."

    SNP wins historic victory, G, 4.5.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/story/0,,2072877,00.html

12.15pm

Phillips review calls for state funding for political parties

Thursday March 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Tempest, political correspondent

A radical overhaul of the way British politics is financed was proposed today, with caps on donations to parties, limits on election spending and up to £25m state funding a year for political parties.

But the long-awaited report by Sir Hayden Phillips admits that there are still major obstacles in the way of getting the big three parties - especially Labour and the Conservatives - to agree to the suggestions.

The report, commissioned by Tony Blair in the wake of the cash-for-honours allegations last year, specifies a £50,000 donation cap and around £20m-25m a year of taxpayers' money to help fund political parties.

Sir Hayden admits that it will be hard to get consensus between the parties - with Labour reliant on large union donations and the Tories keen on heavy spending on individual target constituencies through the life of a parliament - but he concludes that he is now "more optimistic than when I began".

"The status quo is not acceptable," Sir Hayden said. "The public wants reform. The system needs reform. The parties know that reform is necessary. Obstacles do remain, but they are not insoluble."

Sir Hayden, a former civil servant, floats the idea of a £50,000 limit on donations from individuals and organisations - a potential body-blow to Labour, which is largely financed by multimillion pound donations from affiliated unions.

However, the report then appears to fudge this by adding that this need not deny Labour access to its union funding so long as the money is regarded as being made up of the individual donations of many members, which may be regarded as individual gifts.

But he stressed that this would be acceptable only if a transparent way were to be agreed of linking each gift to each individual donor.

This could involve union members being asked to sign forms confirming that they wanted their contribution to the union's political fund to go to a particular party.

The 30-page report also recommends that Labour and the Conservatives should cut their campaign expenditure over the course of a full parliament by about £20m each, to prevent a repeat of the 2005 general election when the main parties between them spent £90m in a year.

In a complex formula to give state aid to parties, which would give a major boost to smaller parties from the Greens to the BNP, the report suggests that funding should be linked to general election votes in order to establish that fringe or new parties have a "base of support in the community".

It recommends that eligible parties should receive 50p each year for every vote cast for them in the most recent general election and 25p for every vote in the most recent ballots for the Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly and European parliament.

In a statement, Mr Blair welcomed Sir Hayden's report and said that it "shows very clearly that there is now the basis for a new agreement on the funding and expenditure of political parties".

Mr Blair said that he hoped consensus could be reached in talks between Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to take place before parliament breaks for the summer.

He has asked Sir Hayden to chair the talks, which are intended to pave the way for legislation in the next parliamentary session.

The prime minister added: "The time has come for us to find a new settlement on party funding and expenditure."

Francis Maude, the Conservative chairman, gave the report a cautious welcome, saying that his party accepted its "main" recommendations, but adding: "The ball is now firmly in Labour's court to reform and clarify its relationship with the trade unions."

And Mr Maude said that any cap on constituency spending must "not be set at a level which gives an unfair advantage to sitting MPs, who now have tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money in parliamentary allowances to spend in their constituencies".

He added: "We want cleaner and cheaper politics. And we believe that all political parties should work together to achieve this.

Alan Beith, the Lib Dem chair of the constitutional affairs select committee, said: "I welcome the fact that this independent report very closely follows the unanimous conclusions of my Committee: that change is needed, that more taxpayers' money should only go to the parties if it is part of a reform package that ends the influence of the big paymasters and that there should be agreed and binding caps on all donations and spending."

    Phillips review calls for state funding for political parties, G, 15.3.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,2034697,00.html

BNP seeks anti-abortion Catholic votes

Sunday March 4, 2007
The Observer
Henry McDonald

The British National Party is building an alliance with radical anti-abortion activists in an attempt to reach out to Catholics and secure their votes in future elections.

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, and one of his close deputies confirmed yesterday that they held private talks last week with the UK co-ordinator of Life League, an anti-abortion lobby group. Griffin and Mark Collet spent two days with James Dowson, an Ulster-based businessman and the main force behind Life League.

The meeting has outraged other anti-abortion campaigners. A number of them, who wanted to remain anonymous, contacted The Observer this weekend. One, who described himself as a 'mainstream anti-abortion and anti-racist', condemned the BNP.

Griffin claimed that amplifying the party's 'pro-life' policies would win it new votes among Catholics. 'There used to be a perception in Northern Ireland and Scotland that we were an Orange party. This is not so,' he said. The BNP, like Dowson, wanted to reach across the sectarian divide.

'If there is any plus for us in meeting Life League and highlighting our opposition to abortion, it is that it chimes with the feelings of many working-class Scottish Catholics,' the BNP leader said. His main candidate in Glasgow would be stressing the BNP's opposition to abortion in the forthcoming Scottish elections.

Dowson said the league had a 'moral duty to engage with anyone who will listen in order to promote our pro-life agenda'.

Matthew Collins of Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine, said it was odd that the BNP 'welcomed Holocaust deniers' yet believed in the 'right to life of the unborn'.

    BNP seeks anti-abortion Catholic votes, O, 4.3.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2026227,00.html