Cameron pays price for dining toff mates

Tory MPs were gripped with disatisfaction over the Prime Minister's bungling and fearful of Labour's sudden surge in opinion polls.

Labour's shadow minister for the Cabinet Office Jon Trickett urged party activists to seize the hour and step up campaigning for a strong result in May's elections in London and around the country.

Mr Trickett said Tory MPs were "panicking" and "wobbly" over Mr Cameron's handling of the cash-for-access scandal.

People around the country "can now see clearly that this is a government of millionaires governing for millionaires," he added.

"The mask that Cameron has been wearing has now slipped."

A ComRes opinion poll showed Labour galloping to a 10-point lead over the Tories, with two out of three people regarding the Tories as "the party of the rich."

Sensationally, in the portion of interviews conducted after the "Cam for hire" scandal broke around Mr Cameron, Labour was 17 points ahead. The Tories slumped to 30 per cent.

Voters gained a further glimpse of Mr Cameron's millionaire buddies when he was finally forced to reveal some details about his cosy private dinners for party donors at Downing Street and Chequers.

Big-time City gamblers from hedge funds and investment companies were heavily represented.

Left MP Dennis Skinner commented: "Cameron's image is now tarnished.

"They are coming across clearly as the party of the rich."

Labour MP John Healey condemned the Tories' attempts on Tuesday to compare trade unionists donations with the Labour Party with millionaires donations to the Tories.

"This is just a Tory smokescreen," he said. "There is a world of difference between millions of working people donating small sums to Labour and a few very rich people handing millions to the Tories."

Trade union donations to Labour were open, legal and democratic, emphasised Mr Healey.

"The Peter Cruddas-style fund-raising for the Tories appears to have been covert and illegal."

Labour MP Grahame Morris rebutted suggestions of any similarity between receiving £250,000 from a private donor with a financial interest in influencing policy and donations from millions of individuals who were members of a trade union and openly contributed to the Labour Party through the political levy.

rogerbagley@peoples-press.com