The significance of Ashcroft goes much further than the money he is currently putting into the Tory Party. Far more important is the way he has used his financial clout over almost a decade to create the databases, structures and organisation on which the current campaign is being run. In 2004/05 Ashcroft, through Bearwood Corporate Services, gave over £42,000 to the Hammersmith Conservatives, the largest single donation to any local Party. This type of funding was then unheard-of in constituencies. It enabled them to employ staff, collect data through market research, create databases and develop a campaign organisation. Of course, there were also glossy leaflets, DVDs and targeted direct mail, but what was different was the ability to sustain a campaign over time, and carry it forward from one election to the next – as they boasted after the council election in 2006. For example, when I was selected to fight the redrawn Hammersmith seat in 2007 they already had an email network of many thousand subscribers and information on the opinions, not just the voting habits, of residents.
Ashcroft was more in evidence as a funder in the run up to the 2005 general election than now because he was operating independently from Conservative Central Office – and because they lacked the other substantial donors who have now jumped aboard. But his investment at this time – paid for as we now know by tax dodging – was crucial. And the Tories realised this when they saw the enhanced swings in the seats like Hammersmith & Fulham into which he had pumped money and know how.
The answer as to whether he is still a substantial donor to seats like Hammersmith is opaque – if there is Ashcroft money it is now coming via the national party. But this question is largely irrelevant. There is a new Ashcroft is most of the marginal seats now – in Hammersmith it is the Nashes, investment bankers and venture capitalists who have given £50,000 to promote the Tory candidate. What makes Ashcroft unique is that his willingness to commit unheard-of sums over long periods has allowed strategic planning of election campaigns for the first time. He can now afford to sit back and – he hopes – watch his Tory party elect his government.
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Candidate: Andy Slaughter
Seat: Hammersmith
Currently held by: Labour
Majority: 5646 (notional)
Candidate website: www.andyslaughter.com