Auction a day with the PM? It’s out of order

THERESA MAY is a woman of adamantine personal integrity. So it is most unfortunate that the party she leads should currently be the subject of an unseemly story about sleaze.

During an auction at a Tory Party fundraising dinner this week, a wealthy donor paid £55,000 to spend a day with the Prime Minister.

How utterly demeaning of politics. No one — especially someone with a large cheque book and with no proof that their money has not come from a dodgy source — should be able to buy access to the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Who on earth allowed this grubby auction? Why didn’t Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood intervene to stop it or, now, order that the arrangement be cancelled?

The party was badly damaged by a series of sleaze scandals during the Cameron years, including allegations of expenses cheating and sexual harassment. His successor, Mrs May, deserves better.