PM condemns cash-for-access scandal in wake of Peter Cruddas resignation Published on Sunday 25 March 2012 11:29 PRIME Minister David Cameron told BBC News today that Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas's claims of access in return for donations were "completely unacceptable" and "shouldn't have happened." Mr Cameron's comments came after in the wake of a cash-for-access row after the Tories" senior fundraiser was filmed claiming that large donations to the party would secure meetings with the Prime Minister. Mr Cruddas resigned within hours of being exposed by The Sunday Times for boasting that "things will open up" for anybody willing to donate £250,000 a year. Speaking to undercover reporters posing as wealth fund executives, he boasted: "It will be awesome for your business." Mr Cruddas insisted today that there was "no question" of donors gaining undue access to senior figures. The Tories said donations did not "buy party or government policy." But the disclosures will be deeply embarrassing for the Prime Minister. Senior Labour MP David Miliband said: "The idea that policy is for sale is grotesque." In a meeting secretly filmed by reporters, Mr Cruddas said that "premier league" donors - those giving £250,000 a year - could lobby Mr Cameron directly and their views were "fed in" to the Downing Street policy unit. He said there was no point in "scratching around" with donations of £10,000. According to The Sunday Times, he believed that any prospective donations from the reporters would come from Liechtenstein and would be ineligible under election law. They are said to have discussed the creation of a British subsidiary and the possibility of using UK employees to make the donation. Major donors are invited to private dinners and other events at Number 10 and Chequers with Mr Cameron, Mr Cruddas said. Donors and their business clients are also able to meet Cabinet ministers like Chancellor George Osborne and Foreign Secretary William Hague, he said. The journalists secured the two-hour meeting with Mr Cruddas through Sarah Southern, a former Conservative Party staffer now working as a lobbyist. The Sunday Times said she told the reporters they should make a "huge donation" if they wanted access to senior government figures. In a statement released in the early hours of this morning, Mr Cruddas said: "I deeply regret any impression of impropriety arising from my bluster in that conversation. Clearly there is no question of donors being able to influence policy or gain undue access to politicians. Specifically, it was categorically not the case that I could offer, or that David Cameron would consider, any access as a result of a donation. Similarly, I have never knowingly even met anyone from the Number 10 policy unit. But in order to make that clear beyond doubt, I have regrettably decided to resign with immediate effect. Mr Cruddas said he only became principal treasurer at the beginning of the month and was "keen to meet anyone potentially interested in donating." He said he had not consulted any politicians or senior party officials before the recorded conversation. A Conservative Party spokesman said: "No donation was ever accepted or even formally considered by the Conservative Party. All donations to the Conservative Party have to comply with the requirements of electoral law. These are strictly enforced by our compliance department. Unlike the Labour Party, where union donations are traded for party policies, donations to the Conservative Party do not buy party or government policy. Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said Mr Cruddas's comments were "utterly disgraceful" and made the case again for reform of party funding - an issue that came under scrutiny when Tony Blair's government was embroiled in allegations that honours were awarded in return for cash for the Labour Party. Attempts at a cross-party consensus for reform have repeatedly foundered. Sleaze watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly warned today that the parties could "duck the issue no longer." Sir Christopher, chairman of the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life, said: "It would be wrong to regard this as an isolated event. Events like it are inevitable as long as the main political parties are dependent for their existence on large donations from rich individuals or, in the case of the Labour Party, a small number of trade unions. The parties collectively need urgently to address the damage this does to confidence in the integrity of the political process. "All three of the major parties promised to end the "big donor culture" in their manifestos for the last election. The promise also featured in the Coalition agreement. My Committee last autumn provided a blueprint for doing so which we believed to be both reasonably fair and sustainable and which, because we are an independent committee, was not distorted by thoughts of party political advantage. Nothing has so far happened. I imagine this is presumably because it requires all the parties to face up to some difficult issues which they would rather avoid. They should not be allowed to duck the issue any longer. Mr Miliband, the former foreign secretary, urged Mr Cameron to publish a list of policies that had been passed on to the Prime Minister and Downing Street from donors attending dinners and other events. "I would say he should do that now, because this goes to the heart of the relationship between a party and a government," he told BBC1"s Andrew Marr Show. It blurs the lines - in fact it crashes through the lines - that should exist between party and government. It goes to the heart of the question of whether or not the Tory party has changed. The great claim made by David Cameron was that he had modernised the Conservative Party. My own view is that they didn't win the last general election because the public didn't really believe the Tory party had changed. The revelations today go to the heart of the Tory party claim that you can trust the Tory party because they have got rid of their bad old ways - from what we know they haven't. Labour peer and former business secretary Lord Mandelson told Sky News: "I think it is very damaging, I think it's degrading not just for the Conservative Party but for everyone in politics. What we've seen on the television is gross, it leaves an extremely unpleasant taste in the mouth, and I think what it also does, though, is point to the need for reform of the rules and of party political funding. We tried to change these rules and get all party agreement on them before, we didn't succeed, I think that discussion now needs to be reopened. Union leader Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, said: "This morning's revelations expose the sleaze and hypocrisy at the heart of the Tory party in all its gory detail. Those same people who attack the open and democratic finances and structures of the trade unions caught up to their necks in another cash for access scandal.