JACK STRAW strongly indicated yesterday that Lord Neill’s call for the government of the day to remain neutral in a referendum campaign may not be implemented. Opening a Commons debate on the findings of the Neill committee on standards in public life, the Home Secretary pledged that the Government was committed to introducing a ceiling of pounds 20m for each party’s campaign spending atthe next general election.
However, while welcoming the report’s main recommendations on party funding, Mr Straw renewed his criticism about the committee’s call for the government of the day to remain neutral in a referendum campaign.He said this was not the “clearest section” of the report and stressed that in some cases the Government would want to make sure not only that the issue was properly understood, but also that the Government’s position was understood as well.Eurosceptics are likely to seize on Mr Straw’s reluctance to accept the report’s key proposal to gain strength for their “No” campaign when a referendum on Britain’s entry into the single currency is called.Lord Neill’s report, published last month, recommended an end to foreign donations and full public disclosure of donations of pounds 5,000, or more, to political parties as well as the spending cap.Mr Straw said: “Here was a party of government which raised millions upon millions of pounds every year, yet persistently refused to tell the public where it got it from.”Whether it was a pounds 1m gift from a Hong Kong businessman, here, or pounds 1.5m from a Greek shipping magnate, there, the Conservative Party’s principal concern appeared to be the size of the cheque.”The shadow Home Secretary, Sir Norman Fowler, rejected the Home Secretary’s attack on the Tories’ reliance on foreign funds, stressing that the party’s major donors would be listed in the annual accounts, to be published in the “next few weeks”.The Conservative party spent about pounds 28m on last year’s general election campaign and the Labour Party spent pounds 26m.. Jack Straw last night tabled a government amendment to the legislation to require a review of the system, once the elections have taken place, as a concession to the Upper House.. THE TORIES came under fresh pressure yesterday to publish a list of donors who give more than pounds 5,000 to the party as Jack Straw claimed that public confidence in party funding reached its lowest point during the last government.

He said negotiations were taking place for major British companies to pledge a further pounds 60m on top of the pounds 100m already secured.. THE HOME Secretary will today try to head off a damaging dispute with the Lords over the Government’s plans for electoral reform for the European elections. But Mr Mandelson insisted during Question Time that he was a “shareholder” of the Dome and not the head of the sponsorship team, pointing to his decision to refer BSkyB’s bid to take over Manchester United to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission although the company was one of the sponsors of the Greenwich project.
But Crispin Blunt (C,Reigate) asked whether, in raising sponsorship, his “real and perceived power over these companies” as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry helped or hindered.Norman Baker, (Lib Dem,Lewes) added: “Would it not be better if in fact responsibility [for the Dome] were passed to the Culture Secretary, Chris Smith?”But Mr Mandelson insisted: “In carrying out my competition policy responsibilities, I can assure you I am in no way influenced by actual or potential offers being made by companies in support of the Dome.”During a later exchange, Mr Mandelson revealed that sponsorship for the Millennium Dome was likely to top the Government’s pounds 150m target by pounds 10m. And we will take no lessons from your side of the House on allegations of cronyism.”. PETER MANDELSON came under cross-party pressure to hand over his special responsibility for the Millennium Dome yesterday because of what was said to be a conflict of interests in his position as the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in securing sponsorship of the project. He is married to Sue Nye, the Chancellor’s private secretary.
Mr Ainsworth challenged Janet Anderson, a culture minister, “to scotch the rumours that the BBC funding review is going to be run, not by somebody who knows about broadcasting, but by an economist, one of the Chancellor’s closest friends …

I’m sure that on reconsideration you would love to take this opportunity to dissociate yourself from the culture of cronyism which seems to be invading every aspect of this Government.”Ms Anderson replied: “I am sure you will not expect me to comment until an official announcement is made. Evidence is pouring in from all over the country that patients are being removed from monthly returns without them having received the treatment to which they are entitled, are being forced to wait longer to get on the list in the first place and being put on hidden lists which do not appear on official returns,” she said.. Peter Ainsworth, the shadow Culture Secretary, claimed during Question Time, that Gavyn Davies, chief economist at the London office of Goldman Sachs, would be chairman of the review. ACCUSATIONS of Labour “cronyism” resurfaced yesterday when it was suggested that a friend of the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, was to head a review group into BBC funding.