As Paul Sykes promises to pump millions into UKIP’s EP2014 campaign LAB’s top fundraiser leaves
@MSmithsonPB Thanks Mike. Happy memories of us with Stephen visiting Hillary and Bill in the Oval in 1999. Deja vu! pic.twitter.com/I7K19lVaqf
— John McCaffrey (@McCaffJohn) November 16, 2013
John McCaffrey ‘s departure is not good for Labour
There’ve been two political fundraising stories over the past few days. The unsurprising news that Paul Sykes has promised several millions for the UKIP Euro election campaign for next May and the departure of John McCaffrey as Labour’s head of fundraising and commercial services.
In terms of political impact, I’d suggest, the latter is the most significant news. For John is undoubtedly one of the most successful fundraisers of his generation.
When I was Director of Development at Cambridge in 1997 I recruited John to run the university’s US operation in New York. It was a great choice and paid big dividends. The picture above shows the two of us in 1998 before a lecture he had set up for Stephen Hawking at the White House hosted by Bill and Hillary. The event was used to build relations with top donors.
John has been with Labour for about a year and his appointment was a key part of EdM’s strategy to broaden the funding basis which, of course, is heavily dependent on the unions. His departure will make that task much harder could have an impact on the overall funds available to fight GE2015.
Mike Smithson
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