United and Cecil Club

Last updated

United and Cecil Club
AbbreviationU&C
Named after Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Formation1949
Merger ofUnited Club (1881) and Cecil Club (1882)
TypeMembers' association
PurposeRaise funds for members of the club standing in marginal seats
Headquarters Winkfield, Berkshire
Membership (2020)
Approx 400
Affiliations Conservative Party

The United and Cecil Club (U&C) is a British dining club with close links to the Conservative Party. Formed in 1949 following the merger of the United Club and the Cecil Club, the club is the seventh-largest donor to the Conservatives, and focuses its donations on marginal seats. Club members have been accused of taking advantage of a loophole in political fundraising laws to donate large sums to the Conservatives without declaring them. [1]

Contents

History

The two forerunners to the U&C were both formed in the 1880s following the death of the unifying figure Benjamin Disraeli. The Constituencies Union, which later became the United Club, was formed in 1881 to raise funds for Conservatives in difficult constituencies, while the National Review and Cecil Club was formed in 1882 by supporters of the Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury to publish the journal National Review . [2] These served as bastions of conservatism during the National Government eras, but following the Second World War, they were merged by Winston Churchill, who served as president of both. [3]

Organisation

The membership of the club is private. However, in response to a question from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in 2007, the club declared that it had around 400 members, who each paid membership fees of £100 annually. [3] The club meets once a month while Parliament is in session for a total of eight dinners a year, and four of those dinners take place in the private banquet halls at the House of Commons. Dinners include a speech from a senior Conservative politician, and speakers have included John Major and David Cameron. [3]

These dinners were subject to a complaint in 2006 from Labour MPs John Mann and Kevan Jones, who alleged that they constituted the illegal use of House of Commons facilities for party fundraising. An investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found that the meals at the Commons were charged at cost, and that the club's fundraising activities were restricted to events outside Parliament. [4]

The club's official headquarters are registered by the Electoral Commission at a stables in Iver, Buckinghamshire, but in the parliamentary register at a riding school in Berkshire. [5]

Donations

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the run-up to the 2015 United Kingdom general election found that the U&C was the biggest donor to Conservative candidates in the ten most marginal seats in the country. [5] Between 2010 and 2014, its largest donations were in the marginal seats of Weaver Vale, Bury North, Carlisle and Cheadle, all of which were won or held by the Conservatives at the 2015 election. [5] The club also raised funds for the Scottish Conservative Party during campaigning for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. [6]

In total, the club gave £712,230.63 to the Conservatives during the 2010–2015 Parliament, [7] making them the seventh-largest donor to the party. [1]

Under Electoral Commission rules, all donations of over £1,500 to a local party need to be publicly declared. However, donations to members' associations – groups like the U&C whose memberships are primarily or exclusively members of a single party – only need to be declared above £7,500, even when those donations are subsequently directed to local parties. The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency criticised this as deliberate exploitation of a loophole allowing donors to make large donations to the Conservatives – and, through the dinners, meet with senior Conservative politicians – while remaining anonymous. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, having won the 2019 general election, and has been the primary governing party in the United Kingdom since 2010. On the political spectrum,, the party has been described as right-wing by various sources and as centre-right by others. It encompasses various ideological factions including one-nation conservatives, Thatcherites, and traditionalist conservatives. The party currently has 354 members of Parliament, 260 members of the House of Lords, nine members of the London Assembly, 31 members of the Scottish Parliament, 16 members of the Welsh Parliament, four directly elected mayors, 30 police and crime commissioners, and around 5,647 local councillors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets out how political parties, elections and referendums are to be regulated in the United Kingdom. It formed an important part of the constitutional reform programme implemented by the 1997 Labour Government, building on the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 which was passed two years earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southport (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom

Southport is a constituency in Merseyside which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Damien Moore of the Conservative Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Thanet (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in England since 1983

South Thanet is a constituency in Kent represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Craig Mackinlay, a Conservative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Pritchard (politician)</span> British Conservative politician

Mark Andrew Pritchard PC is a British Conservative politician and consultant. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for The Wrekin in Shropshire since the 2005 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cash-for-Honours scandal</span> Political scandal in the United Kingdom

The Cash-for-Honours scandal was a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007 concerning the connection between political donations and the award of life peerages. A loophole in electoral law in the United Kingdom means that although anyone donating even small sums of money to a political party has to declare this as a matter of public record, those loaning money at commercial rates of interest did not have to make a public declaration.

Sir David Charles Ord is a British businessman.

Political funding in Australia deals with political donations, public funding and other forms of funding received by politician or political party in Australia to pay for an election campaign. Political parties in Australia are publicly funded, to reduce the influence of private money upon elections, and subsequently, the influence of private money upon the shaping of public policy. After each election, the Australian Electoral Commission distributes a set amount of money to each political party, per vote received. For example, after the 2013 election, political parties and candidates received $58.1 million in election funding. The Liberal Party received $23.9 million in public funds, as part of the Coalition total of $27.2 million, while the Labor Party received $20.8 million.

Political funding in the United Kingdom has been a source of controversy for many years. Political parties in the UK may be funded through membership fees, party donations or through state funding, the latter of which is reserved for administrative costs. The general restrictions in the UK were held in Bowman v United Kingdom to be fully compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, article 10.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Mackinlay</span> British Conservative politician

Craig Mackinlay is a Conservative Party politician and businessman. Since May 2015, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Thomson</span> Scottish Conservative politician

Ross Thomson is a former Scottish Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen South from 2017-19. Thomson was the first Conservative MP elected for Aberdeen South since the 1992 general election, 25 years earlier. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region from May 2016 until June 2017. He was elected to Aberdeen City Council in the 2012 local elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl McCartney</span> British Conservative politician

Karl Ian McCartney is a British politician who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport from July to September 2022. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Lincoln. He was first elected at the 2010 general election and represented the constituency until he was defeated by Labour's Karen Lee at the 2017 general election. He was re-elected at the 2019 general election.

Arron Fraser Andrew Banks is a British businessman and political donor. He is the co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign. Banks was previously one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and helped Nigel Farage's campaign for Britain to leave the EU.

David James Mackintosh is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Northampton South from the May 2015 general election to the 2017 general election. Prior to his election to Parliament, he worked as a political consultant in the European Parliament and the Conservatives before being elected to the County and Borough councils, rising to become Leader of Northampton Borough Council in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campaigning in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum</span> Public outreach by politicians in the lead-up to Brexit

Campaigning in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum began unofficially on 20 February 2016 when Prime Minister David Cameron formally announced under the terms of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 that a referendum would be held on the issue of the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union. The official campaign period for the 2016 referendum ran from 15 April 2016 until the day of the poll on 23 June 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation</span>

The United Kingdom General Election 2015 – Party Spending Investigation was a probe involving the UK Electoral Commission, numerous police forces, and the Crown Prosecution Service into spending by political parties and candidates, primarily during the 2015 general election campaign. This co-ordinated investigation has been described as 'an unprecedented and extraordinary situation'.

Sir Ehud Sheleg, nicknamed Udi Sheleg, is a British-Israeli businessman, art dealer and political figure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Dines</span> British Conservative politician

Sarah Elizabeth Dines is a British Conservative Party politician. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Derbyshire Dales since the 2019 general election. She has been serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding since October 2022. She served as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from September to October 2022.

Lubov Chernukhin is a former investment banker born in the USSR.

The Advisory Board is the name given to a group of individuals that have donated significant sums to the British Conservative Party, typically in excess of £250,000. By February 2022 members of the board had donated £22 million to the party. Members are asked for their opinions on government polices and regularly meet with government ministers including Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Oliver Wright (16 May 2014). "Tory dining club secretively channels hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding by anonymous wealthy donors". The Independent. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  2. P. Jones, J. Sinclair, C. Cook, Jeffrey Weeks (1985). Sources in British Political History 1900–1951. Vol. 6. Springer. p. 107. ISBN   134917825X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. 1 2 3 Bernard Jenkin (29 March 2007). "Written evidence received by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards" . Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  4. Philip Mawer (29 March 2007). "Complaints about alleged misuse of Parliamentary dining facilities" . Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 Tom Warren, Nick Mathiason, Victoria Parsons (5 July 2014). "Low profile United & Cecil Club funnels cash to Conservative must-win marginals". Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Retrieved 22 February 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Keith McLeod (2 April 2012). "Revealed: Tory HQ to keep Scotland in the union is being run from house in Haywards Heath, Sussex". Daily Record . Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  7. "Donations". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 22 February 2017.