Peter Cruddas News

This is significant because Downing Street had always insisted that Peter Cruddas was a minor figure - and here he is seen boasting about his closeness to the Prime Minister.

It also adds weight to the accusation that Downing Street hasn't come clean about the numbers of donors the Prime Minister met at Chequers.

Number 10 will insist this is insignificant - but the Labour Party will no doubt jump on this and say that Ed Miliband has been much more transparent about the donors and backers he's had dinner and meetings with.

• Politics
• Labour
• David Cameron

"I feel that, as I work for the party," former Conservative Party Treasurer Peter Cruddas tells Sunday Times reporters, "my job is to get the donors in front of the Prime Minister."

He describes Chequers as "fantastic" and says of one dinner he attended, "I was sitting next to Sam [Cameron], because I sponsored the evening."

• Politics
• Peter Cruddas
• Cash for Cameron

The Sunday Times has released new undercover footage of former Tory party Secretary Peter Cruddas discussing some of the many occasions he mixed with David Cameron and party donors at private events.

• Politics
• Peter Cruddas
• Cash for Cameron

Asked whether he'd publish a full list of his dinners and meetings, Labour leader Ed Miliband said, "I'm very happy to be open and transparent about what we're doing."

"I think the stain on the character of the Government needs to be dealt with and I think only a full independent inquiry, done by the independent adviser on ministerial interests, will do," he added.

• Politics
• Labour
• Ed Miliband

Labour have raced into a double-digit opinion poll lead over the Conservatives after the fall-out from the Budget and cash-for-access controversy, a ComRes survey for The Independent shows.

• Labour - 43%
• Conservatives - 33%
• Liberal Democrats - 11%
• Others - 13%

• Politics
• Peter Cruddas
• Conservative Party

William Hague has told ITV1's The Agenda that donors do not influence him on his foreign policies. Mr Hague said that "if anyone ever influences me on any policy it's somebody that I meet at surgery or somebody I meet in Afghanistan or Iraq".

Mr Hague denied the existence of a 'policy committee' and said: "Peter Cruddas resigned because he said some silly things. Things that he acknowledges were not true, that there was a policy committee- there isn't such a committee that donors can feed into".

• Politics
• William Hague
• Peter Cruddas

The Foreign Secretary has discussed cash-for-access on ITV's The Agenda with Tom Bradby. Speaking as one of the guests on the programme to be broadcast at 10.35pm tonight, William Hague was asked what £250,000 buys:

"Hopefully only the satisfaction of supporting a political party. I don't think you'll get much more than that. All the parties have had problems with allegations about funding.

"If there's one reassuring thing that I can say as somebody who's served in two cabinets is if people think that an individual donor, a rich person, can change a policy by giving money to a party - I haven't ever seen on the inside an example of that".

• Politics
• Peter Cruddas
• Conservative Party