Questions have been raised over a possible conflict of interest arising from George Osborne’s announcement yesterday that he intends to break up BT as part of his plans for a broadband revolution because it “holds back” companies like Virgin and Carphone Warehouse.
The co-founder of Carphone Warehouse David Ross is a close friend of David Cameron, donating more than £130,000 to the Conservative party. A man not without controversy, he was forced to resign as Boris Johnson’s Olympic Adviser in December 2008 after breaking stock exchange rules by using £157 million of Carphone Warehouse shares to prop up his struggling property empire, and only last December he was questioned by police over an alleged assault.
Here is a detailed breakdown of his donations to the Conservative party; figures obtained from the Electoral Commission:
|
Received by |
Donor |
Date |
Donation |
Accumulation |
|
CCO |
Mr David P Ross |
09/05/2001 |
£25,000 |
£25,000 |
| CCO | David Ross | 31/03/2006 | £5,300 | £30,300 |
| CCO | Mr David Ross | 20/07/2006 | £4,460 | £34,760 |
| CCO | Mr David Ross | 02/10/2006 | £3,600 | £38,360 |
| Corby | David Ross | 06/06/2007 | £2,500 | £40,860 |
| Corby | David Ross | 19/09/2007 | £1,500 | £42,360 |
| CCO | Mr David Ross | 20/12/2007 | £41,000 | £83,360 |
| Corby | Mr David Ross | 20/12/2007 | £1,500 | £84,860 |
| Corby | Mr David P J Ross | 12/03/2008 | £1,500 | £86,360 |
| CCO | Mr David PJ Ross | 08/05/2008 | £30,500 | £116,860 |
| Corby | Mr David PJ Ross | 12/06/2008 | £1,500 | £118,360 |
| Corby | Mr David PJ Ross | 10/09/2008 | £1,500 | £119,860 |
| CCO | Mr David PJ Ross | 10/11/2008 | £8,000 | £127,860 |
| Corby | Mr David PJ Ross | 17/12/2008 | £1,500 | £129,360 |
| Corby | Mr David PJ Ross | 11/03/2009 | £1,500 | £130,860 |
| Corby | Mr David PJ Ross | 18/06/2009 | £1,500 | £132,360 |
| Corby | Mr David PJ Ross | 10/09/2009 | £1,500 | £133,860 |
The Conservative party were unavailable for comment.
17 Responses to “Tory conflict of interest over BT break-up”
Andrew Regan
*Left Foot Forward* "Tory conflict of interest o…": Questions have been raised over a possible conflict of… http://bit.ly/9zsakw #labour
Jonathan Sheppard
And the conflict of interest between the hundreds of thousands the CWU have given Labour and Royal Mail’s protected status? Though why the CWU give so much to the party when under Labour the Post Office Network has been decimated. Probably because people operating post offices were in a different Union. So much for brotherly love!
Mark
Good detective work Shamik. Nice to see you use some evidence this time!
But remember co-founder of Carphone Charles Dunstone was a target of Lord Levy. A quick root on Google reveals Dunstone saying:
“I saw Lord Levy walk past me,” said Mr Dunstone. “Then he spun round, came back and said: ‘You are Charles Dunstone, aren’t you?’ I said yes. He said: ‘Good. Can we put you down for a million?’ ”
A million! Dunstone said no.
In other words, both parties are highly dodgy here. At least we can keep an eye on these things. Keep digging Shamik.
Guido Fawkes
CWU conflict of interest is worth millions not thousands.
Liz McShane
Trade Union donations are made up of individual members’contributions and they do vote on this, quite different to the influence of a single rich individual.