The yacht, the billionaire and the Tory Party

The revelations that Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne spent time on a multi-million pound yacht with a Russian billionaire have led to accusations that the Conservatives have been seeking illegal donations to their campaign funds.

Financier Nathaniel Rothschild has claimed Mr Osborne tried to solicit £50,000 for the Tories from Mr Deripaska while on holiday in Corfu in August. It is illegal for someone not on the UK electoral roll to make donations to a UK political party.

For many people in Shepway this will bring back painful memories of the Conservatives under John Major who were almost permanently embroiled in allegations of sleaze. Many will question whether the Conservatives have really changed at all under David Cameron.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has written to David Cameron asking the Conservatives to support moves to restrict the influence of big money on political parties. Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said:

"The flow of big money into parties is dripping poison into our political system. We need to remove once and for all the risk of political parties becoming over reliant on donations from rich individuals or organisations with vested interests."