Harriet Harman is in deep do-do, but not perhaps as much as Gordon Brown is in now. Adam Boulton has just reported on a statement from Harriet Harman which says that her campaign team hadn't got enough money to pay her campaign bills. She then went to Chris Leslie, the former Shipley MP, who was running Gordon Brown's campaign. Leslie then put her on to Janet Kidd. It appears that in May Leslie had had a phone call from David Abrahams offering money and saying he had "a friend" who wished to donate too.
So not only did Gordon Brown's personal fundraiser know about it, so did his campaign manager. And they seriously expect us to believe that the Prime Minister knew nothing.
Interesting POST from Nick Robinson, who says Peter Watts' predecessors knew nothing about the 'Abrahams arrangement'.
I'm losing track. It's like a bleeding vipers nest. I bet they wish that they hadn't banned hand guns.
ReplyDeletePoor ol gordo beavered away for years to stand in the spotlight and look who is holding it its the police.
ReplyDeleteHe soon will be a convicted politician just like he said.
Astonishing, devastating implications for Gordon Brown's Premiership, can scarcely keep up with it all , am reminded of Saul Bellow's phrase concerning the "mad agility of compound deceit".Doesn't look like Brown is going to survive this now!
ReplyDeleteIain if what you are saying is true then there is perhaps an incredibly sinister motive on the part of "Team Harman" that I do not discount as things these days seem to be getting more weird by the day. Is Team Harman's implication that Team Brown knew about it part of some bizarre plot to force the Prime Minister aside?? Because if that is the case then the interim Prime Minister at least for the few weeks that a leadership contest would take would be .... Harriet Harman! Things are getting really Machiavellian and I don't discount a thing!
ReplyDeleteBrown has been clear that his team turned down a donation from Abrahams.
ReplyDeleteNow we are told his team put Harperson in touch with Abrahams' proxy when she needed some cash.
I don't know about you, Iain, but it seems to me there's something not quite right about all of this.
And now the Electoral Commission has called in the police.
ReplyDelete'Sorry, Yates, we've got another little job for you. Same mob as before, I'm afraid. I'm sure we'll nail them in the end.'
'Yes, Sir.'
The Labour party are in meltdown.
ReplyDeleteThe Spectator also suggested that the Labour party are frantically trying to dig up dirt on Lord Ashcroft for the weekend papers.
Unless they discover something The Times didn't, the difference here is that we've known and talked about Ashcroft for ages and the Electoral Commission appear happy unlike Abrahams who has burst out of obscurity and clearly broken the electoral laws.
They ALL knew. It's the piece of wool in the jersey that when pulled disintegartes the whole sweater.
ReplyDeleteThe Boulton story doesn't ring true. Either someone told Watt what was going on when he took up the job, or he found out for himself. It sounds implausible that he found out for himself but didn't check the rules, so someone must have told him, but apparently didn't tell his predecessors. Does not make sense.
ReplyDeleteG bruun worst PM ever! incompetent and dishonest.
ReplyDeleteIain - any views about the propriety of contributing to a campaign fund AFTER the candidate has won. Might it not be construed as ... ahem ... a personal gift? Didn't a well-known shopkeeper hand these out in brown-paper envelopes once upon a time? Was not the lucky recipient drummed out of public life?
ReplyDeleteBrown envelopes? Funny thing, that. My recollection is that it was never proved. Just the word of a very dodgy Nile lurker, versus that of a slightly buffoonish Tory MP.
ReplyDeleteOdd, that we give such credence to Fayed's claims about cash for questions, but no government would ever give him a British passport.
Always sounded like a Labour-backed stitch-up to me....
So the police are now involved.
ReplyDeleteHarriet Harman has been hung out to dry by Gordon Brown. No surprise since he is a coward.
Harriet Harman will probably have to resign before she gets the push? Yes? No?
Will Gordon Brown please resign?
"the mad agility of compound deceit" ... Thanks for that vivid phrase, Things Fall Apart.
ReplyDeleteAnthoninus - There is no one, repeat no one, in this government smart enough to be engaged in Machiavellian machinations of that complexity. They are ferrets in a sack.
The add for 'Telescopic police batons' seems appropriate tonight.
ReplyDeleteIf this can be substantiated further it is looking like a killer blow for Gordon.
ReplyDeleteThe odds on a General Election must have shortened. Even Millibean is implicated, so who can they put up?
Could it be 'Girl Power'?
ReplyDeleteGordon didn't support Harriet. He left that Jacqui Smith on her own to get a roasting in the commons the other day too.
Why would Harriet suddenly break ranks and say 'screw you, Gordon, it was your Campaign Manager all along . . . and so publicly?
Talk about 'a woman's scorn' . . .
This has been the biggest turnaround in Political fortunes in history. I must remind people that Brown denied knowing anything about the Eccleston affair. O really.
ReplyDelete@ 20:40: The BBC have just reported that Harriet Harman's campaign team knew that Janet Kidd had been turned down as a donor by another campaign.
ReplyDeleteProblem is, I'm filled with dread about the prosect of that NuLab cronie tosser, Iain Blair being in overall control!! Not to mention the CPS, which is also crammed with NuLab cronies. They let Bliar off the hook, and I am willing to bet heavily that, no elected politician will get charged with this. At most, Watt, Mendohlson and Abrahams will have their collar felt, because the law has clearly been broken and even this shower cannot ignre that! Harman, Jay and certainly Broon won't get it. That said it is definitely the end for this government and may lead to Broon's resignation if he is interviewed under caution. But never underestimate how slippery this bunch of wankers can be. They still have plenty of apologists in the MSM. Im' sure the BBC wil be the ever dutiful Pravda.
ReplyDeleteOdd, that we give such credence to Fayed's claims about cash for questions, but no government would ever give him a British passport.
ReplyDeleteAlways sounded like a Labour-backed stitch-up to me....
Read Jonathan Boyd Hunt's brilliantly researched book Trial by Conspiracy for the real story of how utterly and completely Neil Hamilton was stitched up by the Guardian and NuLab. Incredible that the public were conned into believing such an inveterate liar as al Fayed - such was the eagerness to believe in Tory sleaze. The real sleazebags were always nuLab.