Wendy Alexander: How it all went wrong
Wendy Alexander’s decision to quit comes less than a year after she became Labour leader in Scotland.
Last September, she succeeded Jack McConnell who stood down after Labour lost the Scottish Parliament elections which resulted in the SNP forming a minority government.
Ms Alexander had no rivals for the uncontested leadership contest, but questions over her campaign funding have since dogged her.
THE KEY DATES :
* Sunday, November 25, 2007: The Sunday Herald says Ms Alexander is refusing to say whether she returned a leadership campaign donation of under £1,000 to a tax exile in the Channel Islands.
It also says she declined to release the name of the supporter, or to publish a full list of her backers in the Labour leadership campaign.
* Wednesday November 28: Tom McCabe, her campaign manager, issues a statement naming the supporter as Jersey-based businessman, Paul Green.
Mr McCabe says it was indicated to Mr Green that only a UK resident or UK registered company could donate. and it was a UK corporate donation.
“We acted in good faith. The Electoral Commission has been appraised.” said Mr McCabe.
* Thursday November 29: Charles Gordon quits as Labour shadow transport minister after admitting to two blunders over this donation.
He says he told the campaign team the donation was “under the auspices” of a Glasgow firm, Combined Property Services, and that Mr Green had a controlling interest in it.
“Unfortunately I was wrong in both these assumptions,” says Mr Gordon.
Tom McCabe says full details only became clear at 1pm that day and agrees: “Yes, clearly there has been a breach of the law as it stands.”
Paul Green says he was asked by Mr Gordon to give £950 and was assured this was within the rules.
“Relying on that confirmation, I made the donation from my personal account,” says Mr Green.
* ovember 30: Wendy Alexander makes a speech in Edinburgh on the future of devolution. Questioned about the donations. “I deeply regret that this situation has occurred”, she says, and adds that the matter is being studied by The Electoral Commission.
By now, the commission has already widened its probe into a study of all the £17,000 donated to her campaign,
Meanwhile, Mr Green says Ms Alexander wrote a thank you letter in October to his address in Jersey.
He also reveals he gave a donation, also of £950, to the Glasgow South party five months previously, in April.
Like the later occasion, this came after an approach from Charlie Gordon - and Mr Gordon now says he may have made a similar error of interpretation on that occasion.
Meanwhile the Scottish Labour Party says it turned down the offer of a donation in the past from Mr Green because he was not registered as an elector.
It did not know of the Glasgow South donation - and if it had, would have advised that it be refused.
Labour also confirms that Ms Alexander had “regulated done status, making her legally liable.
* December 2: The Sunday Herald suggests Ms Alexander’s team was aware on November 5 of a possible question mark over the Green donation.
A document connected with the computer of her husband Brian Ashcroft contains the note “permissible donor?” in an entry relating to Mr Green.
Meanwhile Mark Hirst, researcher for an SNP MSP, complains to police “as a private individual”.
Labour chief whip Geoff Hoon says of the thank you letter to Mr Green: “I don’t believe it puts her in an impossible position, but clearly she has to explain how this came about and what she knew at the time.”
* February 2008: The Electoral Commission decides not to report Ms Alexander to prosecutors over the campaign donation of £950 from Mr Green.
The Scottish Labour leader says she has been “vindicated”
Ms Alexander publicly reveals details of 10 supporters who each gave just under £1,000 to her leadership campaign.
She says she is volunteering the information on advice from Dr Jim Dyer, the Standards Commissioner - after having previously been told in November by clerks to the Standards Committee that she did not need to register the donations on the register of interests.
* March 2008: Prosecution authorities at the Crown Office announced that Ms Alexander will not be prosecuted for failing to register donations to her leadership campaign, saying further action “would not be appropriate in the full circumstances of this case.”
A Crown Office spokesman said in reaching this decision, Crown counsel took into consideration the fact Ms Alexander had sought the advice of the clerk to the Standards Committee.
* Wednesday June 25: Holyrood Standards Committee rules that Ms Alexander broke the law by failing to promptly declare leadership campaign donations on her Holyrood register of interests.
