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- The Guardian,
- Friday June 1 2001
The electoral commission, which regulates campaign spending under rules brought in by Labour, yesterday signalled its unhappiness about the special adviser contracts. Mr Campbell and 80 others signed them when they joined the Blair government after 1997, at what is now a cost of £4m a year.
Under pressure from a Conservative ex-special adviser, Andrew Tyrie, the commission confirmed that, if an adviser receives three months severance pay, then gets his or her Whitehall job back after the four-week campaign, they must repay a proportionate slice of the severance cheque to the government.
The commission chairman, Sam Younger, admits that it could be argued in court that the amount of money the adviser keeps to live on during the campaign amounts to a "donation" to party funds from the taxpayer. That would be an illegal use of taxpayer funds, he said in a letter released yesterday.
"The issues involved are far from straightforward and we recognise that there are arguments both ways. It could certainly be argued that the retention of the sum by a special adviser who is reappointed means that he has not provided his services to the party free and in his own time," Mr Younger told Mr Tyrie, a Tory MP now seeking re-election in Chichester.
Mr Younger warned Mr Tyrie that his team will not regard the money in dispute as a donation - something that should be registered in Labour's election expenses - because no adviser is guaranteed re-employment.
Their work could just as easily be regarded as "voluntary, free of charge and in their own time" - as a court might well find, he predicted. "However, we cannot rule out the possibility that it could find to the contrary."
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Comment and analysis
31.05.2001, Kathryn Flett: Something of Severus Snape about him...
31.05.2001, Jonathan Freedland: It's got to be Labour
31.05.2001, Ed Harriman: Putting the dirt back into politics
31.05.2001, Stephen Bates: Labour's wake-up call restores eye contact in Wales
31.05.2001, Hilary Wainwright: A piece of paper and a team of lawyers isn't enough
31.05.2001, Hugo Young: Canny voters take it personally
31.05.2001, Sarah Boseley: Chancellor delivers moral message on killer diseases
31.05.2001, Simon Hoggart: When Honor met Chucky in a spirit of pushy galore
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