The real reason Tory donors were named...

The secretive 'club' which exists to fund the Tory Party yesterday claimed it had decided to release a list of its wealthy members “in the interests of transparency”.

Today, the truth appears somewhat different to yesterday's spin by the Midlands Industrial Council which is somewhat bizarely based at Bassingham near Lincoln.

Earlier in the week, it seems The Sunday Times managed to get a leaked list of the names and was planning a big exclusive today. The Times had been approaching various members earlier this week.

So the MIC – which had been under pressure from the Labour Party for months to end its secrecy, finally published the names yesterday. MIC had the brass neck to claim it was doing so "in the interests of transparency".

The Sunday Times story is on two pages HERE and HERE

I was amused by the comment of one member reported in today's Times story:

Peter Shirley, whose new chilled foods factory was recently opened by Cameron, said: “I’m a member of the MIC. I was absolutely amazed that it was David Cameron who came to the (factory) opening.

“We’re not here just for donating money. We want to know that the Midlands economy is in good hands. We tell (Tory ministers) that if they’re going to have policies, we would like to know what the heck they are.”

Er, so would we mere mortals!