SF faces sanction for another late filing of donor details

The Electoral Commission today published the latest tranche of donor details for the Province’s political parties, but said Sinn Fein’s submission had arrived late.

The party – which has been vocal about the need for transparency over political donations – was given a £400 fine this April over late submission of donation reports in the run-up to the 2017 general election.

The deadline to pay the £400 is Thursday, and as of late this afternoon there was no record of it being paid.

The commission regulates political funding and has the power to fine parties anything between £200 and £20,000.

Today’s published details cover donations received between January 1 and March 31.

The biggest private donation to a party in the figures was a £4,000 donation from Belfast International Airport to the North Antrim Westminster Association.

This had already hit the news in February, when it emerged that the airport had paid the cash to sponsor a gala DUP dinner gathering at the Galgorm in January, featuring an appearance by North Antrim MP Ian Paisley.

At the time the airport said that it supports all Northern Ireland’s political parties “where it is clear the events they organise, or are a part of, are to the benefit of the airport”, adding that it was in the midst of a campaign to lobby for the scrapping of air passenger duty.

The only other private donation recorded in today’s figures was a £2,000 gift to the Ulster Unionists.

It came from James Kingan, a 61-year-old farmer from the Groomsport area, who had been a member of the party since the mid-’80s and had stood unsuccessfully as a council candidate in the ‘90s.

He told the News Letter he had given donations before, though not such a large sum, and just wanted “to help the party out, really”.

It was the second time that details about Northern Irish donations have been published. The first time was this March.

This came after years of calls for large-scale political donations in Northern Ireland – which had previously been hidden under a legal blanket of secrecy – to be brought into line with in Great Britain, where it has long been the norm for them to be public.

In addition today, the Electoral Commission said it has opened an investigation into a donation from Mid and East Antrim Council to Ian Paisley. It said it could not go into more details because the investigation was live.

It relates to the purchase of a table at a constituency dinner last year for £1,500.

Mr Paisley (and the council) said the money went to the hotel rather than the DUP, and the MP said: “I look forward to them concluding the matter soon.”