SNP ‘CASH FOR VOTES’ ROW OVER ENGLISH HUNT BAN
Party banked £10,000 from anti-hunting group weeks after U-turn that scuppered Tory plans
NICOLA Sturgeon is embroiled in a sleaze row after the SNP accepted £10,000 from an animal rights group – weeks after its MPs blocked a vote on English fox-hunting. the money was banked after the party overturned years of tradition and announced MPs would interfere in hunting rules south of the Border.
David Cameron was forced to drop plans for a Commons vote as a result, even though any changes would have had no direct impact in Scotland. Last night, opponents said fears would be raised that the money was a ‘bribe’. Miss Sturgeon now faces being dragged into a potentially explosive ‘cash-for-votes’ scandal.
the donation came from the Political Animal Lobby (PAL), the sister organisation of network for Animals. Both were founded by high-profile wildlife campaigner Brian Davies.
network for Animals boasts on its
website that it has been ‘tirelessly lobbying the SNP for months, urging them to stand up to David Cameron and vote with their conscience’.
Tony Blair was at the centre of a nearidentical scandal when PAL gave £1million to the Labour Party in 1996. He won power a year later on a manifesto that promised a vote on fox-hunting. A ban came into force in England in 2005.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: ‘Can it just be a coincidence that, shortly before receiving this very generous donation to boost party funds, the SNP decided to change a decades old policy?
‘There are very serious questions to answer here from the SNP. People will be extremely suspicious about this link. The SNP will clearly have a lot of work to do to persuade people this wasn’t simply a bribe.’
In May, shortly after the Nationalists’ landslide election victory, Miss Sturgeon revealed she was considering abandoning the party’s voting traditions in relation to fox-hunting. The party website said then: ‘The SNP has a longstanding position of not voting on matters that only affect England. The Hunting Act is one such matter that purely affects England and Wales and so SNP MPs would not vote on this issue.’
Nationalist MPs had boasted for years of taking a ‘self-denying ordinance’ not to interfere in issues that only affect England and Wales.
But on July 13, the party’s MPs met for nearly two hours in Westminster, with Miss Sturgeon present. It was then announced that Nationalist MPs would vote down proposals to relax foxhunting laws, with sources claiming Alex Salmond was instrumental in pushing the new position.
A day later, an anti-hunt protest was staged at the Commons, where Queen guitarist Brian May was joined by SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson. May has campaigned for animal welfare coalitions that include PAL.
The same day, a furious Mr Cameron dropped plans for a Commons vote, as the combined forces of Labour, the SNP and Tory rebels would almost certainly have meant defeat.
The Prime Minister said at the time: ‘The position of the SNP has up to now always been clear, which is that they do not vote on matters that are purely of interest to England or England and Wales. I find their position entirely opportunistic and very hard to explain in any other way.’
The Electoral Commission has now published the latest data on donations to political parties, which reveals the SNP accepted £10,000 from PAL on August 14.
Labour took £10,000 from PAL on September 25.
Mr Davies is executive director of the organisation. Network for Animals is registered at the same London address, Mr Davies is also listed as the executive director and other directors have roles with both organisations.
No website appears for PAL, though Network for Animals says it is its ‘sister organisation’.
On its website, the company says: ‘We had been tirelessly lobbying the SNP for months, urging them to stand up to David Cameron and vote with their consciences. We met SNP MPs, we wrote to them, we emailed them and we enlisted the help of our supporters and petitioned them to do the right thing.
‘We, and millions of animal lovers, were delighted when the SNP announced on Monday, July 13, they would be standing up to Cameron and voting against his amendments. With their votes, we were confident we could defeat Cameron.
‘Over the next few months, Network for Animals will be working tirelessly to prepare for David Cameron’s next move.
‘We will also be showing our support to the SNP, who have intimated they will be looking at Scottish hunting legislation. They weren’t the majority party when the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 was drafted. They are now and it is our wish to help them tighten up Scottish hunting laws, which are not as effective as the Hunting Act, which Cameron is so desperate to destroy.’
Asked if the donation impacted on SNP policy, a party spokesman simply responded: ‘The SNP has long been against fox hunting.’
Network for Animals could not be contacted for comment.
‘Serious questions
to answer’
‘Confident of beating Cameron’
ONE of the SNP’s few principles was it would not vote in Westminster on matters relating entirely to England and Wales.
But suddenly the party developed a concern for English and Welsh foxes so great that it felt compelled to threaten to vote against moves that would have simply brought hunting laws south of the Border in line with those here in Scotland.
Can it really be pure coincidence that this Damascene conversion came about after heavy lobbying by an animal rights group previously tainted by sleaze allegations after a £1million donation to Tony Blair’s Labour Party?
No matter your view of hunting, a political party banking £10,000 from a pressure group shortly after falling in line with its thinking looks very bad indeed.