PAUL GREEN, The Scotsman, 4/12/2007

THE businessman at the centre of the donations scandal in Scotland is said to be "seething with anger" at his treatment by the Scottish Labour Party.

Paul Green, who is based in Jersey, gave money to Wendy Alexander's recent leadership campaign - even though it is illegal for someone not registered in the UK to donate to political parties.

At first, it was claimed the money came through a company connected to Mr Green in the UK, and then that Ms Alexander was unaware the donation was personally from Mr Green.

However, it has since emerged that not only were some in the Scottish Labour Party aware the money came from Mr Green directly but that Ms Alexander wrote to him to thank him.

Mr Green has always maintained he was unaware he had done anything wrong, and those close to him say the multimillionaire developer is "seething with anger" that the Labour Party either allowed people to think he had knowingly given money illegally or had tried to cover the evidence, particularly given previous donations to the party over the years and Mr Green's involvement in the regeneration of Glasgow.

"[There is] infighting in the Labour Party and he has been caught in the crossfire," a source said.

In Jersey, Mr Green is best known for his racehorses.

The local newspaper, the Jersey Evening Post, has been reporting the anger of Mr Green at his treatment on the mainland.

CHARLIE GORDON

CHARLIE Gordon was last night facing a threat to his future as an MSP as the row over illegal campaign donations refused to die down.

Mr Gordon, the Labour MSP for Glasgow Cathcart and a former leader of Glasgow City Council, has already resigned as Labour's transport spokesman over the affair.

But there was increasing speculation at Holyrood last night that he might have to resign as an MSP if he is found to be solely and completely to blame for accepting the illegal donation from Paul Green and hiding its true nature from Ms Alexander.

Mr Green gave Mr Gordon £950 in April this year for his own election campaign, having been assured by Mr Gordon that the donation was legal - even though Mr Green was not a registered UK voter.

According to the Labour Party, Mr Gordon failed to tell party officials in London or Edinburgh of the donation, simply recording it as part of his constituency fundraising efforts.

Keen to get in with the leader-elect of the party in August, Mr Gordon offered to raise money for Ms Alexander's leadership campaign and went again to Mr Green. Mr Green gave Mr Gordon £950, this time earmarked for Ms Alexander's campaign.

Mr Gordon insists he believed the money was given "under the auspices" of a Glasgow company, Combined Property Services.

Mr Gordon was the person who broke the law. It is not known if he told any other members of the campaign team about the true nature of the donation and whether he made up the link to the company.

OTHER DONATIONS

FOUR key members of Wendy Alexander's team were assigned as personal "contacts" for donations to the leadership campaign, MSPs Tom McCabe, David Whitton, Jackie Baillie and Pauline McNeill, it has emerged.

A total of £16,600 was raised for her fighting fund, including ten contributions of £995 and one of £950 - all just below the £1,000 threshold, above which donors have to be named.

The £950 came from Paul Green. One of the £995 donations, thought to be organised by Mr McCabe, came from David Pitt-Watson, of private equity firm Hermes Focus Asset Management. He had previously given money to Gordon Brown's leadership campaign. Mr McCabe also raised money from other business people, including Neil Davidson, the former solicitor general, and Willie Haughey.

Mr Whitton is understood to have organised donations from John Lyon, a former Labour MP, while Ms McNeill brought in a donation from businessman Brian Dempsey, and Ms Baillie organised a donation from Harry Donaldson, a senior union official.

Seven Labour peers - Lords Robertson, Maxton, Boyd, Elder, Sewel and Moonie and Baroness Adams - gave £2,500 between them.

Ms Alexander is understood to have been responsible for securing a donation of £400 from long-term Labour supporter Mary Goudie.

Nick Kuenssberg, a Glasgow businessman and also the part-time deputy chairman of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, was also a donor and is thought to have given £995 to the campaign.

BRIAN ASHCROFT

LABOUR sources were insisting last night that Professor Brian Ashcroft had nothing to do with Wendy Alexander's illegal donations, despite his name being linked to the row over the weekend.

Prof Ashcroft is Ms Alexander's husband and his name was recorded as the "author" of a crucial document, leaked to the media, which appeared to cast doubt on the legality of the Paul Green donation.

It is understood that the key document was drawn up on a spreadsheet, the template of which had been created by Prof Ashcroft several years ago, but which was still being used to format new material.

The document was supposedly dated 5 November, but this is disputed by members of Ms Alexander's campaign team, who believe it was drawn up much earlier than that.

They also insist that Prof Ashcroft's name only came up as the "author" of the document as he had created the earlier spreadsheet, when he and Ms Alexander were drawing up lectures for the Fraser of Allander Institute.

It is understood that this original spreadsheet has been used numerous times as a template over several years.

This would explain why Prof Ashcroft's name was on the document, but it does not explain what role he played in the campaign, or why he had drawn up a spreadsheet on the computer in the campaign office.

It is not known whether the computer was in Ms Alexander's home or in her office.

LONDON CONNECTION

WHILE speculation and accusation engulfed Wendy Alexander north of the Border, her role in the "donorgate" controversies dogging Labour became yesterday's news at Westminster.

Once it was made clear that Ms Alexander was not immediately resigning over her donation from a tax exile, the press returned to pursue the "bigger" fish of Gordon Brown. That much was made clear by Downing Street's dismissive tone on Ms Alexander's fate.

When asked whether Mr Brown had begged Ms Alexander to stay, the Prime Minister's official spokesman, who does not comment on party matters, replied: "It is not for me to answer questions on Wendy Alexander."

In London, interest in Ms Alexander was only sparked once rumours spread that she was on the verge of resigning on Friday. However, that interest intensified over the weekend with reports that Mr Brown "begged" Ms Alexander not to go as this would have given the opposition and press a scalp too early in the unrelated donorgate rows. Even worse for Mr Brown, it could have triggered a domino effect that would claim Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader. The argument would have been that if Ms Alexander quit over a £950 rule-breaking donation, why should Ms Harman keep her job after accepting a donation worth more than five times that?

Perversely, Ms Alexander will hope the Westminster scandal continues to throw up enough new lines surrounding Mr Brown to turn the London press away from her.

TOM MCCABE

TOM McCabe is expected to do all he can over the next difficult few days to try to close down this row.

He will insist that neither he nor Wendy Alexander can say anything about the row until the Electoral Commission has reported.

Mr McCabe is very good at political survival but even his skills will be sorely tested by this latest controversy.

Mr McCabe became Ms Alexander's campaign manager when she ran for the leadership - an arrangement which suited them both well politically.

But rules were ignored and laws were broken when Charlie Gordon accepted Paul Green's cheque for £950.

So far, Mr McCabe's strategy has been to blame everything on Mr Gordon, but he is in a difficult position.

As the campaign manager, it was Mr McCabe's job to run the campaign, and the fund raising. If Mr Gordon failed to check the provenance of a donation, then Mr McCabe should have done.

Ms Alexander may try to avoid any blame by insisting that she was not told the details of the illegal donation. Mr McCabe will not find it so easy to use the same argument.

If he did not know what was going on, then he was not doing his job properly and if he did know, then he has been lying and he is as culpable as Mr Gordon.

Mr McCabe has managed to negotiate his way through the minefield of Scottish Labour politics for many years and he is desperately trying to do so again.

Only when the Electoral Commission reports back with its findings and the police reveal results of their investigation will he know whether he has succeeded.

DAVID WHITTON

AS THE Treasurer to Wendy Alexander's campaign, David Whitton now has two days to gather all the information for the Electoral Commission investigation.

The commission wants everything by Thursday this week and although the Alexander campaign submitted a routine document listing all the donations, it now needs to provide much more material, which is now largely Mr Whitton's responsibility.

Mr Whitton became the Labour MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden in May, but he is no stranger to politics or to the Scottish Parliament.

He is one of the most experienced media managers in Holyrood, having been Donald Dewar's spin doctor.

As an MSP, Mr Whitton's role is not strictly as Wendy Alexander's spin doctor but, in the absence of others - Ms Alexander has lost two press spokesman in the past two months - he has taken on that role. He has tried to guide her through this intensely difficult period, but it has been a struggle, primarily because Ms Alexander has decided not to say anything until the Electoral Commission reports.

With that restriction in place, it is almost impossible for any spin doctor to seize back the agenda.

However, Mr Whitton was the treasurer for the Alexander leadership campaign - he was a signatory on the bank account - and, as such, it was his responsibility to check all the donations were legal and above board.

Mr Whitton may find he is held responsible by his Labour colleagues at Holyrood if Ms Alexander is forced out, something that would not be good news for his political career.

HUNT FOR THE LEAKER

LABOUR leaders have started a major internal investigation to try to find the person responsible for leaking such sensitive material to the media.

The number of people with access to the information is very small, almost certainly in single figures.

Wendy Alexander's inner circle consisted of Tom McCabe, David Whitton, Jackie Baillie, Charlie Gordon and Pauline McNeill. There were others who might have had access to some of the information, including Matthew Marr and Brian Lironi, the two former spin doctors who quit over the past two months, and Steven Purcell, the Labour leader of Glasgow City Council who was a strong supporter of the Alexander campaign. What is clear is that somebody who had access to campaign data has taken copies of key documents and sent them out to selected journalists for the past two weeks.

One document, released last weekend, contained a list of donors, the amounts they had given and comments by the team for action on each donation; its circulation would have been restricted.

Ms Alexander is desperate to find the person responsible and, although the leaking of such devastating material does not necessarily prove the existence of a plot to unseat the Scottish Labour leader, it does show that at least one person feels so angry about Ms Alexander that he or she is prepared to take her down - and damage the whole party.

No-one knows yet whether the leak has come from policy disagreements, personal antipathy to Ms Alexander or is part of the sort of factional infighting the Labour Party in central and west Scotland used to be famous for.