George Galloway’s Respect Party is under scrutiny over its funding. Apparently it spent £320,000 in the general election and £240,000 in last year’s European elections.
Earlier this week it came under fire from the think tank New Policy Network for failing to declare donations on anything like this scale. Respect declared £40,000 in the year before the election and says the rest came from small donations.
Election spending rules are bureaucratic and the New Policy Network are a bunch of disillusioned tankies from the Democratic Left, formerly part of the CPGB. But the substance of the concern is real.
After all, there are some donors we know about. Outrage has highlighted Dr Mohammed Naseem, who stood for Respect in Perry Barr, Birmingham at the last election and donated £15,000 to the party.
Naseem is also an executive member of, and home affairs spokesman for, the Islamic Party of Britain (IPB). According to the IPB’s website, “People afflicted with unnatural conditions like homosexuality or pedophilia need treatment, not encouragement.” The IPB’s home affairs policy would “safeguard public decency by preventing any public advocacy for homosexuality”. A violation of this law would fall under “public incitement”. For “public displays of lewdness witnessed by several people”, the “death penalty” would apply.
The issue is important because it shows the political concessions Respect is prepared to make to get elected.