Row over paper's party payments

Both the Independent and the Conservative party were embarrassed yesterday when it emerged the newspaper had given Tory conference organisers £18,800 which the party had not disclosed as a donation.

The Labour party, on the other hand, has hastened publicly to reveal that it too had received a parallel £25,000 from the Irish-owned Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd, the newspaper's holding company. The donation was classed as 'sponsorship'.

The disclosure dismayed executives at the Independent, who had never announced any of the political payments. They revealed the paper had written similar 'sponsorship' cheques for both the other parties.

"We do not, as a company, make political donations," said chief executive Brendan Hopkins: "There were similar payments to the Tories for poster sites and sponsorship and the Liberal Democrat's conference."

The Liberal Democrats declared their £6,600 donation.

Conservative central office said the money was classed as payment for a stall advertising the Independent at conference. They had not disclosed it as it was a commercial transaction.

A spokesman said the electoral commission's regulations allowed the payment to be made to a commercial company "totally independent of the party". In fact, CCO Conferences Ltd works primarily for Conservative central office [CCO] and is part-owned by Shirley Matthews, listed on Companies House records as a Conservative party executive.

An electoral commission spokesman said the loophole was being reviewed. Non-disclosure of payments for conference stands was permitted because they were considered of direct benefit to the sponsor.

Labour's money was classed as sponsorship. The paper paid £25,000, in return for being allowed to give each delegate a free copy; to sponsor a fringe meeting; and to have a banner in the conference hall.

The Independent was furious it was registered as a donation. "This was simply a commercial deal by our circulation department. All newspapers get involved in promotional activities, but they are not classed as 'donations', but we were told by the Labour party finance director that they had to be registered under new rules."