Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Where’s the money from?
Liz Kendall managed to distance herself from Patricia Hewitt during the Leicester West election campaign.
As the lobbying scandal exploded Liz emphasised that she’d worked with Patricia ‘in the past’ and that she wanted to focus on her own record.
On another occasion she said:
“I don’t think people closely associate me with Patricia Hewitt. I’m the new candidate. Judge me, on me.”
But figures from the Electoral Commission that the all-new candidate’s campaign was funded by the controversial old one – at least in part.
The most recent published figures show that Patricia Hewitt herself donated £3,100 to the Leicester West constituency Labour party on March 1 this year.
It was the only donation made to the constituency party in the first quarter of this year, and the first in at least a decade from Ms Hewitt to the local party.
£3,100 is, of course, slightly more than Ms Hewitt’s claimed daily rate…
