Figures reveal true cost of assembly vote

Northern Echo, by Tony Kearney

GROUPS campaigning for a directly-elected assembly for the North-East spent more than twice as much their opponents in the run-up to November's historic referendum.

Figures released by the Electoral Commission yesterday showed that groups supporting a Yes vote spent nearly £500,000 in a failed attempt to persuade the region of the need for a North-East assembly, compared with a total of just over £200,000 by those backing a No vote.

Despite the financial imbalance, the region overwhelming rejected the proposed assembly by a decisive margin of 78 per cent to 22 per cent.

North-East No campaigner Neil Herron said: "What this shows is that no matter how much money they were able to throw at it, if the present wasn't very nice then no amount of shiny wrapping paper was going to make people want it - you can't buy the North-East public."

The commission yesterday released spending figures for 13 of the organisations registered as permitted participants in the referendum.

The biggest spender, Yes4TheNorth-East, has been given until May to declare its figures because of the size and complexity of its finances - although it is understood that the final sum is likely to top £300,000.

The Labour Party spent more than £120,000 campaigning for a Yes vote, while the public sector trade union Unison spent £30,000, with smaller donations by the TUC, the GMB trade union and the Liberal Democrats.

Among their opponents, North-East Says No - the official opposition to the assembly - spent just over £140,000, the Conservative Party spent £30,000 and the North East No campaign spent just over £28,000.

It also emerged that more than £17,000 was spent promoting the various options for reorganisation of local councils, which would have come into effect had the referendum produced a Yes vote.

The commission's figures also gave details of several donations made to the Durham-based North East Says No campaign, led by Bishop Auckland businessman John Elliott.

They include two private donations of £10,000 each - one from newly-appointed Tory peer Lord Steinberg, the former deputy treasurer of the Conservative Party and the chairman of bookmakers' chain Stanley Racing, and another from Flowidea Ltd, the City-based investment company, which is currently the second largest donor to the Conservative Party. North East Says No also declared £6,400 of support in kind from the United Kingdom Independence Party for use of its call centre.

Taxpayers are facing a bill in excess of £10m for the referendum, including £2.9m for the logistics of staging the postal ballot, £3.2m for the publication and distribution of Government information, £3.9m for the Local Government review and nearly £200,000 for campaigning by ministers John Prescott and Nick Raynsford.