Party funding proposals “put on hold?

I don’t know whether anybody at Number 10 read yesterday’s thread on the Ashcroft money but one of the big surprises in the Queen’s Speech was the absence of a plan to bring in immediate legislation on party funding.

This is contrary to all the reports over the weekend that suggested the Government would include legislative plans to deal with Ashcroft’s support for Tory marginals between elections.

In fact all we got was a statement that planned legislation in this area was being “put on hold”.

This is very wise because putting a one-sided bill through would have been very controversial and would have diverted attention from other key initiatives.

Mike Smithson