Doorstepping in Dorset
- 17 Dec 07, 04:24 PM
It’s not often these days that I get to do an old fashioned doorstep - not now I’m meant to be a respectable political editor. Last Thursday, however, I travelled down to Poole in Dorset to call on a man who intrigued me - one of the biggest Conservative Party donors of recent years.
Tom Scott gave £500,000 to the Tories in April last year, and has also given two smaller donations of £5,000. Not bad going for someone who is only 32. And yet, as I found last Thursday, Mr Scott’s home, in a quiet, attractive square in the centre of Poole, is a pretty modest dwelling. It's not the kind of home one would expect for a man who must be pretty wealthy if he can afford to give a political party half a million quid. And yet, according to official records, Mr Scott bought his house for only £420,000 last May. Strange, I thought, that a man spends less money on his home than he does in supporting a political party. He must be a very keen Conservative.
One should not confuse Tom R. Scott of Poole with his father, who is also called Tom Scott – Tom H Scott - and is 62. Scott Senior lives in Guernsey, having moved there twenty years ago, and now is reckoned to be worth at least £200 million, making him one of the richest businessmen in the Channel Islands. Interestingly, Tom Scott Senior is also a Conservative Party donor, having given £10,000 to David Cameron’s leadership campaign in 2005, and £100,000 in two other gifts to the Tories in 2006. Scott Senior didn’t give the money personally – that would be against the law, since he is not registered on the electoral roll in UK (and the Channel Islands are regarded as a “foreign” source when it comes of party funding). Instead Scott Senior gave money to Cameron and to the Tories through his business, a car-dealership based in Dorset called Jacksons, of which he was the sole shareholder until he sold the firm a few months ago (and which was run by his son Tom Scott Junior). Giving "foreign" money like that is perfectly legal. Some might say it was a loophole in the funding law.
It’s always a bit nerve-wracking suddenly descending on someone to ask them questions they probably don’t want to answer. But in Poole last Thursday lunchtime the young Tom Scott was perfectly amiable, though not willing to tell me much. “No comment,” “I have no comment to make”, he must have said that eight or nine times in response to a long list of obvious questions I threw at him standing outside his door. No threats, no request to leave; it all seemed a bit of a laugh to him. One thing he did tell me is that he is now “unemployed” since his father sold Jacksons earlier this year. So was he now claiming Jobseekers Allowance? I joked. “No,” he laughed.
They are an interesting pair, the Scotts. Given their importance in bankrolling the Tories, I suspect we may soon be hearing a lot more about them.
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Insinuation does not a story make.
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You are prepared to make insinuations against the Conservatives, though you give no evidence that you have confronted CCHQ with your apparent findings. If these donations are illegal, then they should certainly be publicised,criticised and punished.
But why then are you ignoring the far more detailed and clear accusations involving millions of taxpayers' money paid out by the LDA and Livingstone's crony, Lee Jasper?
This is precisely the kind of behaviour that leads to accusations of ±«Óătv Leftist bias.
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Of course Judith, wait until the mods see your post, it will be deleted. We are not allowed to mention Mr J####r. For some reason the ±«Óătv find it embarrasing.
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What a waste of licence fee money with this old story..
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The tories could be given a billion pounds in donations and still not win an election under that silly toff and his group of rich PR brats.
They couldn't run a toy train set.
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Sorry, meant clarify "old" the story is old was covered at the time last April 2006 in detail by the Sunday Times..
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Hmmm.. I'm struggling to see how one could prove anything untoward has happened here, as, unlike the recent case with Mr Abrahams, it is entirely possible that the father is in the habit of helping his son out financially.
Of course, I appreciate that the son could be acting as a conduit - but there is nothing wrong in a father enriching his son, who may happen to share his own political views.
Clearly there may be tax implications of such gifts, and the son may be 'unduly influenced' to give the money to the Tory party. But it is not like the scenario where a Labour donor was apparently unaware that they had been the source of a large donation.
I agree that this doesn't look very wholesome - but what families do with their money within the family isn't really something it is possible to legislate for - although clearly if some written instructions have been passed between the two I may well be wrong.
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It's nearly 22:55 and I can not believe that Newsnight did not even refer to this particular story:
Cameron's constituency party held on to this illegal - not improper donation and got rid of it just over a week before a well known Tory paper broke with the Abraham's story. At what point did Mr Cameron find out about the ÂŁ7,000 illegal donation. Did he know about it while he was during all those PMQ's when he was attacking the PM's integrity? If so he is a hypocrite of the highest order. If he did not then he must now regret suggesting that if the PM does not know about what is happening in his party then he is not fit to govern the country. If Cameron does not know what is happening in his own constituency...
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Well done once again Mr Crick.
The tale of Tom Scott Junior's massive and rather mysterious donation IS a new one.
Jeanette Eccles - the story covered by the Sunday Times was Tom Scott Senior exploiting the loophole in the law that allows him to give cash through his business in Dorset.
What do the Tories say about this?
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Well done once again Mr Crick.
The tale of Tom Scott Junior's massive and rather mysterious donation IS a new one.
Jeanette Eccles - the story covered by the Sunday Times was Tom Scott Senior exploiting the loophole in the law that allows him to give cash through his business in Dorset.
What do the Tories say about this?
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