Election 2010 – Tory Chris Philp hits back over ‘demeaning’ scrutiny of Conservative Party funding
Published: 1 April 2010
by TOM FOOT
THE big white mansion house on College Crescent had been Tory blue for more than 100 years.
The Conservative Association had bought No 36 in 1888 – when Lord Robert Cecil was Prime Minister.
But when Glenda Jackson won in Hampstead and Highgate in the 1992 general election, the Conservative Party decided to downsize its headquarters.
Election defeat led to a move to a smaller base in Heath Hurst Road, South End Green. College Crescent was not sold, instead the building was rented out to University College School (UCS).
It is understood that UCS now pays around £60,000 each year for its junior boys Phoenix School to rent it, paying the money to the Tories’ holding company, Crescent Properties Ltd.
According to documents filed in Companies House, the firm’s directors are Camden councillors Chris Knight and deputy leader Andrew Marshall.
Lib Dem candidate Ed Fordham, who is a governor at UCS, said: “There is nothing illegal about it. But I think we should all be clear about where the funding is coming from for their campaign. Chris Philp says that 97 per cent of his party funding comes from local people. But to say that is disingenuous.”
During a Question Time-style debate in Rosslyn Hill Chapel on Thursday, the Conservative candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn had moved to distance himself from donations from Lord Ashcroft, the Tory financier whose tax status has plagued the Conservatives’ national campaign.
“We get nothing from him here – 97 per cent of our money is raised locally, from individual donations from people in the area,” said Mr Philp.
Mr Fordham said the £60,000 paid to the Hampstead and Kilburn Conservative Association from Crescent Properties each year was more than enough for three full-time members of staff.
He said his Liberal Democrat election campaign was mostly funded through “cake stalls, raffles and social events”, adding: “Every penny is raised locally.”
He said the giant £400-a-fortnight Lib Dem election billboards that went up in Swiss Cottage recently were paid for by a concerned local party supporter.
Cllr Philp said: “That property off Finchley Road [the house in College Crescent] was given to the local party – we rent it to UCS. It is straightforward, transparent, local; it’s in the constituency.”
He then turned to Mr Fordham and said: “To raise it like this demeans politics, you and your party.”
Cllr Philp added: “When you look at the Labour Party, 65 per cent of their funding comes from the unions – and those donations have strings attached.”