Miliband gives donor talks details

Labour leader Ed Miliband has published a list of meetings with party donors
31 March 2012

Ed Miliband has published a list of 43 meetings and dinners with major donors to the Labour Party, including several union bosses, Labour peer Lord Sugar and mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone.

The move came after Prime Minister David Cameron released details of Tory donors whom he has hosted at 10 Downing Street and Chequers.

However the Labour leader included all meetings at his home or office with trade union general secretaries and donors who had given £7,500 or more, going further than Mr Cameron, who earlier this week published details only of meals with "significant" donors who gave more than £50,000.

A Labour spokesman said: "We promised openness and transparency and we have delivered. David Cameron should match this by publishing his own list of all meetings and dinners with donors who have given more than £7,500."

Mr Cameron released details of 12 Tory donors who had dinner at Downing Street and five who ate with him at Chequers as the result of the furore sparked by Conservative co-treasurer Peter Cruddas when he told undercover reporters that a donation of £250,000 or more could secure them an invitation to meet the PM.

Mr Miliband's list includes all published donors to Labour whom he has met since becoming leader in September 2010. Donations below £7,500 to the central party are not required by electoral law to be published.

It revealed that Mr Miliband has met Len McCluskey, the leader of Britain's largest union, Unite, on eight occasions since becoming leader. Unite, which is currently threatening to take petrol tanker drivers out on strike, has donated more than £5 million to Labour under Mr Miliband's leadership.

Other union leaders meeting the Labour leader included Dave Prentis of Unison (five meetings after £2.4 million of donations) and Paul Kenny of the GMB (six meetings after donations totalling £2.5 million).

Mr Miliband listed six meetings with businessman Andrew Rosenfeld, who lent Labour £1 million before the 2005 election and has given £120,000 under his leadership, as well as four - including breakfast and dinner at his home - with Nigel Doughty, the former Nottingham Forest chairman who died in February.

Other business figures he has met privately include property tycoon Kevin McGrath, ex-chairman of Green & Black chocolate Henry Tinsley and Canary Wharf developer Sir George Iacobescu. He hosted dinner for Mr Livingstone at his home last week and met him on three other occasions over the past 18 months.

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