Conservatives receive £1.4 million in anonymous donations

As the Daily Telegraph reports:

[In the latest donations report] The Conservatives have received more than £500,000 from a “front company” that allows donors to remain anonymous, it has emerged …

The payment of £530,000 from an organisation called Scottish Business Groups Focus on Scotland was the biggest single payment to the party in the last quarter of 2008, Electoral Commission records show …

Focus on Scotland is an “unincorporated association”, a legal entity that does not have to publish accounts or other financial details. Since 2004, it has given £1,455,000 to the Conservatives.

This arrangement is similar to that of the highly controversial Midlands Industrial Council, although in the MIC’s case repeated public pressure caused the publication of some information on who had donated to it.