Scottish Labour party candidate rejects Tony Blair’s money

This cartoon by Martin Rowson in Britain is about Tony Blair and the Iraq war.

From daily The Guardian in Britain:

Scottish Labour candidate rejects £1,000 donation from Tony Blair

Lesley Brennan, standing in Dundee East, refused her portion of a six-figure donation to the national party by the former Labour leader

David Feeney

Sunday 8 March 2015 16.57 GMT

A Labour general election candidate has turned down a campaign donation from Tony Blair.

Lesley Brennan, who is standing in Dundee East, tweeted that she had rejected £1,000 she had received from the ex-Labour leader.

The money is from a war chest of more than £100,000 that the former prime minister has given to help the party win 106 key seats. Brennan, currently a councillor for the East End area of Dundee, is seeking to overturn a majority of 1,821 held by the SNP’s Stewart Hosie.

This morning she tweeted: “Received donation from Tony Blair. Instinct was to not accept. Discussed with team. Dundee East is not accepting the £1000.”

Labour appears likely to lose seats to Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP at Scottish ballot boxes in May, after the latter saw a surge in support after the No vote won the Scottish independence referendum in September.

Blair’s six-figure donation was accepted by Labour last week, with the party saying it was “delighted” that he was backing Ed Miliband’s campaign for Downing Street with his own cash.

…

Brennan was unavailable for further comment on Sunday afternoon.

The SNP said that all five Labour candidates in marginal seats in Scotland who received donations from Blair should reject them. Angus Robertson, the SNP MP for Moray, said: “It proves that this was bad money that would do Labour in Scotland no good, and we challenge the other four constituencies in Scotland to do the same.”

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