Thursday, March 01, 2007

Why does Network Rail make donations to Scottish Labour ?

Network Rail is supposed to be a not-for profit company that was put in by Labour after they forced Railtrack out of business.

Now on the Electoral commissions web site you find the following information on donations to the Labour party: (Hat tip to Andrew who the following in a comment on Guido's blog... "What on earth are Network Rail, a state owned company, doing making any kind of political donations/payments? )

Why is the electoral commission giving UKIP a hard time when this sort of thing is going on ?

Register of donations to political parties

Your search matched 2 donations with an overall total of £ 11,000.00

Types of donations:

Cash

Received by	Donor	Date accepted	Donation
Scottish Labour	Network Rail Ltd status: Company company reg no: 04402220	28/02/06	£ 5,000.00
Scottish Labour	Network Rail Ltd status: Company company reg no: 04402220	31/12/06	£ 6,000.00
Section total:£ 11,000.00

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: I have spoken to Network Rail and it appears that these payments were in fact related to stands and events that they held at Scottish Labour's conference and events. The Labour Party in Scotland seems not to understand the difference between a donation and payment for services ...; 5:14 pm
Man in a Shed said...: Anon - thanks for the research ! The question still stands (no pun intended) as to why they weren't doing the same for other parties.

It does sound like a donation, but if you have a stand at the conference then one where you expect to get something back in return. Doesn't strike me as ethical - but perhaps state owned industries have done this in the past with other government ?; 5:24 pm

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