Among the list of party political donations published by the Electoral Commission yesterday, the most curious were those from “Ms Joan L B Edwards”, who was reported as giving £420,576 to the Conservatives and £99,423 to the Lib Dems. Initially thought to be a rare act of pro-coalition generosity, it transpired that the money was left in her will, which, according to party sources, stipulated that it should go “to whoever was the party of government of the day”. Since this is a coalition, the money was split between the Tories and the Lib Dems based on the number of MPs they have.
But today’s Daily Mail casts a strikingly different light on the story. The paper reports that the will, written in 2001, in fact stated that the £520,000 should go to “whichever Government is in office at the date of my death for the Government in their absolute discretion to use as they may think fit” and made no reference to any political party. Based on that, it is patently clear that she intended the money to be used by the government to fund public services or pay down the national debt, not by political parties to fund spin doctors and poster campaigns. As shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy tweeted last night, “this looks dodgy as hell by Tories&Libs”.
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