Cameron Forced To Reveal Dinner Party Guestlists

The Prime Minister has been forced to admit that he hosted wealthy Tory donors at a series of private dinners and lunches in Downing Street and at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence, since the general election.

After a frantic day of denials, refusals and U-turns, the Conservative party announced that the controversial donor Lord Ashcroft headed a list of millionaire supporters were invited to Chequers over the past two years.

Hours earlier the Tories admitted that the prime minister hosted a "thank you dinner" in Downing Street in July 2010 for six donors and their wives, plus the Tory co-chair Lord Feldman of Elstree, who have donated a total of £18m to the party. The Chequers donors have given the party a further £5m.

After his involvement in the so-called “Yachtgate” affair in 2008, George Osborne had vowed to no part in party fundraising, but he has since also been forced to admit that he has hosted donors at his official Dorneywood country residence.

In an effort to help Cameron, Nick Clegg said last night that cross-party talks on party funding reforms should be launched next week.

"Controversy about how political parties are funded has affected all parties at one time or another. The system doesn't work,” the Lib Dem leader said.

“We need to fix it and fix it fast, and that's why I want to see cross-party talks start this week."

The release of the Chequers, No 10 and Dorneywood guest lists were designed to draw a line under the party funding row which Downing Street has struggled to contain after the Sunday Times revealed that the Tory treasurer, Peter Cruddas, was touting access to Cameron. Cruddas resigned on Saturday night after the Sunday Times released a video of him in which he told undercover reporters that a donation of £200,000 or £250,000 would give "premier league" access to the prime minister and other leading figures.

Downing Street had hoped to close the issue when it announced on Sunday that an internal party inquiry, to discover how Cruddas had suggested there was a tariff for meeting the prime minister, would be lead by Lord Feldman. However this came unstuck also when it was revealed that is was in fact Feldman who had appointed Cruddas as treasurer.

Tory officials initially confirmed that Cameron had hosted a few private dinners in Downing Street for donors who were friends and that no details would be released, with lead Tory negotiator on party funding, Francis Maude, telling the Today programme that it was “nonsense” to be be obsessed with the private dinners.

"The fact that that happens does not mean that what you get as a donor to the party is the ability to be invited to Downing Street as a guest of the prime minister," Maude said.

But as Labour stated they would demand the prime minister answer questions in parliament, Downing Street embarked on its first U-turn with Cameron opening a speech on dementia in London by announcing that he would publish a list of all donors invited to dinners.

The list published later that day revealed that far from inviting friends round for a private dinner, he had hosted six donors plus their wives to a dinner in the main part of 10 Downing Street. He also invited Feldman, Tory co-chair, who is also a donor and Murdo MacLennan, the chief executive of the Telegraph Media Group, who is not a donor.

Within 30 minutes of saying that no details of dinners at Chequers would be released the party announced a list would be made available.

Ed Miliband dismissed the internal Tory inquiry. "It is completely inadequate, given the scale of these allegations, for an investigation into what happened to be conducted by the Conservative party.

(H)