In Great Britain, the Labour Party could be in trouble for accepting a donation from online betting company Bet365.com.
According to reports in a national newspaper, Gordon Brown’s party accepted $300,000 from Bet365.com despite the Government's recent decisions to repeal its decision on Manchester’s ‘super casino’ and announcing a ‘review’ of gambling advertising guidelines.
The newspaper claims that the donation featured in the Party’s quarterly figures published by the Electoral Commission and led to opposition charges of hypocrisy over stopping the spread of problem betting.
'It's a bit rich to have Gordon Brown taking the moral high ground over ‘super casinos’ while accepting this six-figure sum from an online betting company,' said a senior Conservative Party source.
These same public figures confirmed that Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair, left Labour $40 million in debt and the newspaper speculated that it would be difficult for the Prime Minister to fund a snap general election campaign in October without calling on other major individual donors.
'Our finances remain in a challenging position but the upturn of recent months continues to be reflected in the figures from the Electoral Commission,” said a Labour spokesman.
“Donations to the end of June 2007 show an increase of $7.17 million on the same stage in 2006.'
