UK Rocked By ‘Cash For Access” Scandal: How Much Does It Cost To Meet David Cameron?

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is currently embroiled in an embarrassing nationwide scandal, after a top fundraiser for his political party was caught on tape trying to solicit for donations through promises of “direct access” to the national leader.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is currently embroiled in an embarrassing nationwide scandal, after a top fundraiser for his political party was caught on tape trying to solicit for donations through promises of “direct access” to the national leader.

In a damning video released by The Times of London on Sunday, Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas told undercover reporters, who were posing as wealthy businessmen, that a £250,000 donation to the party would grant “Premier League access” to the prime minister – or in other words, a private meeting with Cameron where donors could ask him “practically any question that you want.”

Cruddas also boasted how other wealthy donors had gotten access into Number 10 Downing Street, the private residence of the prime minister, and that making a donation to the party would be “awesome for your business.”

The most shocking admission by the Conservative Party fundraiser though came when he suggested that significant donors could effectively influence national policy on certain issues.

“Things will open up for you, but you need to go in with a bit of, you know — it’s no good scratching around and it’s ten grand or 75 grand,” said Cruddas to the uncover reporters. “A hundred grand is not premier league. It’s not bad — it’s probably bottom of the premier league.

“Two hundred grand to 250 is premier league … what you would get is, when we talk about your donations, the first thing we want to do is get you at the Cameron/Osborne dinners,” he said.

[quote]And “if you’re unhappy about something, we’ll listen to you and we’ll put it into the policy committee at Number 10. We feed all feedback to the policy committee,” Cruddas added.[/quote]

Unsurprisingly, the sting operation has led to widespread furore among UK citizens and politicians, with Cruddas effectively forced to resign on the same day that the video came out.

The prime minister has also been confronted with numerous calls from the public to reveal the donors who had been granted access to his private residence, though he tried to distance himself from Cruddas’s statements by pleading ignorance.

Describing the incident as “completely unacceptable”, Cameron pledged a “proper inquiry” into the claims.

“This is not the way we raise money in the Conservative Party. It shouldn’t have happened,” said Cameron, as cited by the BBC.

[quote]”It’s quite right that Peter Cruddas has resigned. I will make sure there is a proper party inquiry to make sure this can’t happen again.”[/quote]

But the damage may already have been done, with opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband demanding an “independent investigation” into the prime minister’s fundraising operations.

“It can’t be an internal Conservative investigation sweeping it under the carpet and in a way keeping it from the public,” said Miliband.

[quote]“We need to know what happened. These are so serious, these allegations, because it’s about the way that policy is made, we’ve just had a Budget in which the tax rate has been cut at the top of the income scale.”[/quote]

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“We need to know what access was paid for, if access was paid for, and what contributions were made and the interaction between the prime minister, the chancellor and Conservative Party donors.”

Another Labour Party source also told the Financial Times that the prime minster’s plea of ignorance should be rejected, even as Cameron’s aides insist that the prime minister is entitled to keep private whoever he entertains at Number 10.

[quote]“This goes right to David Cameron,” said one Labour source. “When he is having private dinner parties in his own flat, he must wonder who his guests are and why they are there. He can’t just shrug his shoulders. We are going to hold his feet to the fire on this.”[/quote]

Watch: Clip of Peter Cruddas In The Undercover Sting Operation