Wendy Alexander - Resignation Over Foreign Donation

Resignation Over Foreign Donation

In 2007, a controversy developed after it emerged that Alexander's campaign team had accepted a £950 impermissible donation from Paul Green, a property magnate, a matter that was investigated by the Electoral Commission and Strathclyde Police. When it emerged that the donation of £950 had come from a personal account, and not a business account, the money was immediately forfeited. Further newspaper reports on 30 November indicated Alexander was aware of the identity of the donor, after having sent a personal letter of gratitude to Mr Green (at his home in Jersey) concerning the donation. As Mr Green was not registered as an elector in the United Kingdom this barred him from donating to a UK-based party. However, the Electoral Commission concluded in February 2008 that Alexander had taken 'significant steps' to comply with funding regulations and decided there was no basis for further action. As part of the Electoral Commission ruling, they also stated that Alexander "did not take all reasonable steps" and that "there is not sufficient evidence to establish that an offence has been committed". These mixed messages have resulted in a number of people questioning the decision, including Alex Salmond the head of the Scottish Government who likened the result to a not proven verdict.

In a separate development, a few days earlier in February 2008, the Scottish Parliament standards watchdog reported Alexander to the procurator fiscal for failing to declare as gifts the donations that were made to the fund for her campaign for the Scottish Labour Party leadership. Alexander had been told by the parliamentary authorities that there was no need to declare these donations as gifts. In previous leadership campaigns, campaign donations were not treated as gifts. Again the subsequent investigation led to a decision by the Crown Office to take no further action.

Despite this ruling, on 26 June 2008, on the eve of the Parliamentary summer recess, the SNP-led Standards Committee of the Parliament voted 4 to 3 to propose a one-day ban from the Scottish Parliament as a sanction for not declaring leadership campaign donations as gifts on the Parliament's register of interests. Alexander had followed the advice of parliamentary authorities which stated that there was no need to declare the donations as gifts, The proposed ban was overwhelmingly rejected by the Parliament in a subsequent vote in September 2008. However, with Holyrood going into summer recess at the time, Ms Alexander would have had to wait until September for all MSPs to vote on the recommendation. So, rather than having the issue hanging over her - and her party - Ms Alexander announced her resignation as leader on 28 June 2008. She subsequently stated it had been a mistake for her to take on the leadership of Scottish Labour while her children were so young.