Richard Cook, chair of the secretive group that channelled £435,000 to the DUP, is interviewed at his home by Channel 4's Alex Thomson. Image used under Fair Use: Channel 4. All rights reserved.
Owen Smith, the former Shadow Northern Ireland secretary, has asked the Electoral Commission to open an investigation into Richard Cook, the man behind the Constitutional Research Council (CRC), a secretive group that funnelled £435,000 to the DUP for Brexit. The call comes after openDemocracy revealed fresh concerns about Mr Cook’s business dealings.
In a letter sent to Northern Ireland Electoral Commission Friday, Smith urges the elections regulator to investigate Cook, the CRC and the DUP donation.
"This individual, Richard Cook – and his organisation, the CRC – clearly has a blatant disregard for the rules of electoral law. Therefore it is in the public interest that all new information on this disturbing donation is fully investigated,” the former shadow Northern Ireland minister wrote.
Separately, SNP MP Brendan O’Hara has also written to the Electoral Commission, calling for the watchdog to publish evidence of any due diligence that was conducted on the source of the £435,000 donation."The least the Electoral Commission can do is to provide reassurance to the public that no stone has been left unturned and that no lead has been left unexplored in confirming the veracity of this massive donation,” said O’Hara.Last weekend an openDemocracy investigation revealed that Cook’s waste management company had been involved in shipping in illegal waste, leaving an international trail of regulatory concern, legal action and debt stretching from India to California.The DUP, which props up Theresa May’s government, is set to play a crucial role in the outcome of Brexit in the Commons. But the source of the £435,000 given to the DUP just weeks before the 2016 referendum - revealed by openDemocracy remains clouded in mystery due to donor secrecy laws then in force in Northern Ireland.The DUP donation was made through the Constitutional Research Council (CRC), a secretive group whose chair and only known member is Cook, a Glasgow-based businessman and former Scottish Conservative vice-chairman.Both Cook and the DUP have refused to say where the £435,000 came from. Under British electoral law political parties need to know the source of all donations, but last year DUP treasurer Gregory Campbell said that it was not his party’s responsibility to check out Cook or the CRC.The Electoral Commission fined the CRC for failing to declare the DUP donation, saying the group "had no reasonable excuse for these failings". But the elections watchdog has so far refused to launch a full investigation into Cook or the CRC. Owen Smith said: "openDemocracy's latest revelations raise serious questions about Richard Cook's business dealings and the £435,000 given to the DUP to campaign for Brexit which the Electoral Commission needs to fully investigate.“Even if you have assurances from Mr Cook that the source of the funding is legitimate, use of the Commission’s full resources and powers should be used to verify this. And if rules have been broken, then this is a clear occasion when public action by the commission is needed.”Brendan O’Hara MP also told openDemocracy that it was time for the Electoral Commission to investigate Cook and the DUP donation."I have written to the CEO of the Electoral Commission asking that he publish all the due diligence carried out by the Commission on the £435,000 paid to the DUP by the Constitutional Research Council (CRC) during the Brexit referendum,” said O’Hara.
