Conservatives' election war chest tops £10m.
We are about three months away from the general election yet, everywhere I drive in West London, I see posters for the Tory party and none for Labour or the Liberal Democrats. Reading this morning's newspaper the reason for that has become blindingly obvious.
On one stretch of the A4 I saw three different posters carrying the message, "I haven't voted Tory before, but I like their plans to......" and an element of Tory policy in inserted.The Conservatives received more than £10m towards their election war chest in just three months – far more than the other parties combined.
The flood of cash into the Tory coffers is enabling it to outspend Labour in pre-election skirmishes ahead of the campaign. It reported gifts worth £10,481,949 in last quarter of 2009, compared with £4,962,886 collected by Labour and £1,055,717 received by the Liberal Democrats. The figures released by the Electoral Commission also show that the Conservatives raised some £26m during 2009, while Labour received about £16m over the year.
And David Blunkett is making it clear that this is unlikely to change between now and May.
David Blunkett, Labour's chief election fundraiser, has said his party cannot afford to emulate the Tory election budget. He claimed it would be able to spend about £8m in the election, compared with an £18m budget for the Conservatives. In an email to party members, he said: "The announcement has confirmed what we've known for a long time – we're the underdogs in this election."This coming election should be a walk in for Cameron. He's facing a party which has been in office for a very long time and has recently been hit by a worldwide financial recession. He has much more money at his disposal than his rivals and yet, because he appears to have no policies which he is willing to articulate, he has started slipping in the polls.
It appals me that there is any chance at all of these old Etonians forming the next government, but the election, despite the Tories holding every advantage imaginable, is starting to look as if it going to be much more neck and neck than I would have predicted a couple of months ago.
Cameron is in danger of blowing this.
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2 comments:
They may have lots of dosh but they need good ideas, too. The only idea that they seem to have is to bring back hunting and hare coursing. Shame on them!
I agree, Geoffrey. All that dosh and almost no actual policies. Or certainly none that they care to tell us about.
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