Labour cannot match Tories on campaign spending, admits Blunkett

Labour would face bankruptcy if it tried to spend as much as the Tories in the election campaign, David Blunkett said today. The former home secretary told the Times that the party only had a campaign budget of £8m and that it would have to take care to ensure that the party finances did not go "pear-shaped" after the campaign. Blunkett was speaking in his capacity as chair of Labour's general election development board, a body responsible for fundraising. The Tories have had no problem raising money, and they should be able to spend around £18m – the legal maximum – on the national campaign, and even more in individual constituencies. Blunkett said Labour only had £8m in its campaign fund, but that he hoped further donations would take that to £10m. He told the paper that the party did not have the "big money and big charisma" it used to enjoy when Tony Blair was leader. "We are trying to be careful so we don't end up bankrupt after the election if this all goes pear-shaped," he said. A Conservative spokesman said that the money raised by the opposition was only "a fraction of the £540m of taxpayers' cash the government spent on PR last year".