10. Letter to the Commissioner from
Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, 11 November 2008
I understand from press inquiries on Friday and over
the weekend, and subsequent press reports, that Ben Wallace MP
has asked you to investigate the circumstances surrounding the
sponsorship of an event in my constituency in 2004.
As a result of these reports, I asked officers of
Blackburn Labour party, and my constituency office, to look back
at the records of this event. I hope the following will be helpful
if you do wish to examine this matter.
The event in question was a dinner held on 24 April
2004 at Blackburn Rovers Football Club to mark the 25th anniversary
of my election as an MP. It was organised by the Blackburn Labour
party and by my constituency office. The event was in no way a
fund-raising event—indeed, it made a loss which I met from
my own pocket. Moreover it was never seen as a partisan political
event—people of all political persuasions and none attended,
including representatives of the police, the NHS, and the local
newspaper.
As I have previously stated to Parliament, a company
called Canatxx agreed to sponsor the event. I provided this information
in a Parliamentary written answer in 2006 (giving information
which was not directly germane to the question):
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has received official
hospitality from Canatxx Ventures Limited, Canatxx UK and its
associated companies in the last four years.
Mr. Straw [holding answer 27 March 2006] : No.
The hon. Member might however wish to be aware that Canatxx was
one of the sponsors of a dinner in April 2004 to mark my (then)
25 years as Member for Blackburn. My Department was not involved
in any way in this event.
- 18 Apr 2006: Hansard, Column 71W
I understand from a report in the Lancashire Telegraph
on November 11 2008 that Lord Taylor of Blackburn has said that
he invited Canatxx to make a contribution to the event.
Canatxx contributed £3000 in sponsorship. The
money was used in full to meet some of the costs of the dinner.
No one at this distance is clear exactly why, but in the event
this money was paid in April 2004 not into the Blackburn Labour
party account, as was the ticket money for the event, but into
a petty cash account used by my constituency office.
The officers of the Blackburn Labour party have always
been assiduous in meeting the obligations to declare donations
above the relevant limits, and have erred on the side of caution.
But because this cheque was not paid into the Blackburn Labour
party account the then Treasurer was unaware of it, and the person
who paid it in to the constituency office account was unaware
that it was likely to have had to be declared.
I want to underline that my constituency office,
the Blackburn Labour party and I stand ready to provide any further
information you should require in the course of any further inquiries
into this matter.
I am now advised that the contribution from Canatxx
should almost certainly have been registered with the Electoral
Commission and the Parliamentary Register of Members' Interests.
This was a regrettable oversight, but the error in not doing so
was made entirely in good faith.
I hope that my making clear to Parliament the involvement
of Canatxx in the event underlines my approach to these matters.
Mr Wallace has questioned whether there is any link
between Canatxx's involvement in this event and its application
for a gas storage facility at a site some 30 miles from my constituency.
This suggestion is completely unfounded. I have never been involved
in Canatxx's business or any planning application made by them—not
before the dinner in 2004, during it or since.
11 November 2008
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