Thursday, January 21, 2016
A chicken suit, a pink bus but no 'Ed Stone'
The Electoral Commission has published the national expenditure returns of the various political parties and as usual it is full of surprises.
The revelations seems to have upset Labour MPs in particular who are said to be spitting feathers after it emerged that their party spent £600 on chicken suits during last year's election campaign, while their widely mocked “pink bus” cost close to £5,000.
One Labour MP told The Sun: “We could spend £6 million on chicken suits at the next election, but until we accept the fact we had an unpopular leader and no economic credibility we’ll just repeat the same mistakes again.”
The paper says that the Tories spent an eye-watering £237,951 on plush private jets and helicopters to ferry David Cameron and his cabinet around the country in the lap of luxury during last year’s campaign. Whilst the firm belonging to the Conservative’s Aussie campaign manager Lynton Crosby took £2.4 million, nearly 15 per cent of the Tories total budget.
They add that Labour spent £223,572 with former Obama adviser David Axelrod’s firm AKPD, while his rival Jim Messina’s firm was paid £369,000 by the Tories. Labour spent another £563,973 on polling from US firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.
Perhaps the biggest shock was the fact that in the run up to the election debates Labour spent £184,609 on expert coaching for awkward Ed Miliband with top expert Michael Sheehan.
What is missing is a receipt for the purchase of the infamous 'Ed Stone'. Apparently, Labour forgot to submit it. We await with bated breath to see what this stunt actually cost.
The revelations seems to have upset Labour MPs in particular who are said to be spitting feathers after it emerged that their party spent £600 on chicken suits during last year's election campaign, while their widely mocked “pink bus” cost close to £5,000.
One Labour MP told The Sun: “We could spend £6 million on chicken suits at the next election, but until we accept the fact we had an unpopular leader and no economic credibility we’ll just repeat the same mistakes again.”
The paper says that the Tories spent an eye-watering £237,951 on plush private jets and helicopters to ferry David Cameron and his cabinet around the country in the lap of luxury during last year’s campaign. Whilst the firm belonging to the Conservative’s Aussie campaign manager Lynton Crosby took £2.4 million, nearly 15 per cent of the Tories total budget.
They add that Labour spent £223,572 with former Obama adviser David Axelrod’s firm AKPD, while his rival Jim Messina’s firm was paid £369,000 by the Tories. Labour spent another £563,973 on polling from US firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.
Perhaps the biggest shock was the fact that in the run up to the election debates Labour spent £184,609 on expert coaching for awkward Ed Miliband with top expert Michael Sheehan.
What is missing is a receipt for the purchase of the infamous 'Ed Stone'. Apparently, Labour forgot to submit it. We await with bated breath to see what this stunt actually cost.
