“Money, money, money. Must be funny, in the rich man’s world.”
- Song by ABBA
The General Election held in October 1924 may not be the most popular topic for discussion at dinner parties these days, but it heralded two changes that echo down the years to this very day.
The first is that it marked the end of the Liberal Party as a serious power in British politics. They lost 176 seats to the Conservatives and did not get anywhere near power again for 86 years when they entered into an ill-fated coalition with the Cameron’s Conservatives and we know how that ended.
The second reason relates to a thing as simple as a letter. Four days before the election the Daily Mail printed a letter (the Zinoviev letter) from the head of the Communist International in Moscow to the Communist Party of Great Britain ordering it to engage in seditious activities. The letter argued that the resumption of diplomatic relations between the UK government and Moscow would hasten the radicalisation of the working class. On 24th January 1924 the short-lived Labour Government under the leadership of Ramsey MacDonald had recognised the Soviet Union. The letter’s implication was obvious. A vote for Labour was a vote for Bolshevik interference in British politics.
It is difficult to imagine today how concerned the British establishment were about the revolution that had swept across Russia being exported to the UK. After all the 1924 election was only 7 years after Lenin came to power. More importantly, perhaps, the Daily Mail letter gave birth to the notion that a vote for Labour was a vote for interference from the Kremlin – a fear the Conservatives tried to take advantage of at every subsequent General Election until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1980s. I can remember the Tories trying to take advantage of that fear at most elections in my youth. The notion of reds under the bed had been born.
Just to complete the story the Daily Mail letter is nowadays generally regarded to have been a forgery, but the damage was done. The seed had been sown. Labour was in the pocket of malign influences in the Kremlin. The Daily Mail never apologised.
Well surprise, surprise - we now know, all these decades later, that Russian influence in British politics is not aimed at the Labour Party after all but the Tories!
It emerged over the summer that the Conservatives had received more than £3million from very rich Russian-born donors. These donors now have British citizenship so can legally donate to political parties. Some of the donors have distanced themselves from Putin while others, and their spouses, have had much closer links. Included in their generosity were sizeable sums just to play tennis with senior Tories or dine with Prime Ministers. It would be naïve to assume this money has been spaffed around because they didn’t know what else to do with it or they simply liked the shade of blue the Tories have adopted. It is also difficult to believe the chatter at these events was simply about how to improve one’s serve or the temperature the cod was dished up at. Could they have been seeking to influence the PM and Minister? Who could think such a thing?
One thing is for sure - if the Labour Party had unearthed a healthy funding stream from Russians, the Tory-supporting press would have been all over it. There would have been dark murmurings about money for influence, the UK being turned into a Putinesque satellite and in-depth analysis of each donor, their roots in Russia and exactly how they came by all their money. The body of Zinoviev would have exhumed and paraded around. Predictably, perhaps, the monied links to the Tory Party went largely unreported and are now just accepted as part of political life. There is not much talk about a much-needed overhaul of funding for political activities.
Russian influence over British politics, sadly, does not stop there. There is also the question of the EU Referendum. According to an Opinium poll, 49% of the British public believe Moscow interfered with the Referendum. There is evidence in the public domain of an intelligence officer from the Russian Embassy developing links with key leaders in Leave.EU. It cannot be denied that it suits Russia’s foreign policy aims to weaken the EU by pulling the UK away.
Some would argue that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to prompt a Government investigation into whether the Kremlin had helped the Brexit process along but, as we know from the Russia Report, neither Prime Minister May or Johnson were interested in doing this.
What we do know is that a Russian-born elite has penetrated the highest offices of British political life and there is enough evidence to have a proper investigation into influence on the Referendum if only the political will was there.
In Londongrad there is clearly lots of love from Russia closely followed by a troika stuffed full of roubles. The Daily Mail is yet to print a letter about it.
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