Whistleblower raises funding questions

A former executive member of Brighton and Hove Green Party has raised questions about party funding.

A former executive member of Brighton and Hove Green Party, who wishes not to be identified, has raised questions about party funding in the city. He told Brighton and Hove Independent:

'It is impossible to obtain a complete picture of the funding of the Green Party's activities in Brighton simply by looking up donations to the Brighton and Hove party or to Caroline Lucas.

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"Major donors are directed to give their money to the national party office, where

"it is held and spent on items such as staff and advertising - principally, or even wholly - on the behalf of our local party or its MP. By this means, the local Green Party is able to plead penury and present itself as being the poor underdog taking on its more established rivals.

"If staff are hired by the national party in this way, it opens up the possibility that employees hired principally for the benefit of the Brighton and Hove party are said to be working nationally or for other local parties.

"The party has been challenged repeatedly, internally and externally, over the last 10 months to disclose what was declared in 2010 for staffing costs.

"It has responded only with obfuscation and by reference to opaque and aggregated data on the Electoral Commission website."