David Cameron admits to private dinners for Tory donors

PM forced to reveal a series of private dinners and lunches in Downing Street hosting those who donated nearly £23m to party

David Cameron has revealed a series of private dinners at Downing Street for Tory donors. Photograph: Wpa Pool/Getty Images

David Cameron was forced to admit that he had hosted wealthy Tory donors who have given a total of £23m to his party at a series of private dinners and lunches in Downing Street and at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence, since the general election.

In a chaotic day, which saw Downing Street embark on a series of U-turns, the Conservative party announced that the controversial donor Lord Ashcroft headed a list of millionaire supporters invited to Chequers over the past two years.

Hours earlier the Tories admitted that the prime minister hosted a "thank you dinner" in Downing Street in July 2010 for six donors and their wives, plus the Tory co-chair Lord Feldman of Elstree, who have donated a total of £18m to the party. The Chequers donors have given the party a further £5m.

George Osborne, who vowed to play no role in party fundraising after he became entangled in the so-called "Yachtgate" affair in 2008, was dragged into the row when his office admitted that he has hosted donors at his official Dorneywood country residence.

Treasury sources said that Howard Leigh, Lord Feldman and Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, were invited as part of larger social groups. No events at Dorneywood were organised specifically for donors.

Nick Clegg rallied to the help of Cameron last night by saying that cross-party talks on party funding reforms, one of his responsibilities, should be launched this week. In a statement issued from the nuclear security summit in Seoul, he said: "Controversy about how political parties are funded has affected all parties at one time or another. The system doesn't work. We need to fix it and fix it fast, and that's why I want to see cross-party talks start this week."

The release of the Chequers, No 10 and Dorneywood guest lists were designed to draw a line under the party funding row which Downing Street has struggled to contain after the Sunday Times revealed that the Tory treasurer, Peter Cruddas, was touting access to Cameron. Cruddas resigned on Saturday night after the Sunday Times released a video of him in which he told undercover reporters that a donation of £200,000 or £250,000 would give "premier league" access to the prime minister and other leading figures.

Downing Street hoped it had closed the issue down when it announced on Sunday that Lord Feldman would take charge of an internal party inquiry to discover how Cruddas had suggested there was a tariff for meeting the prime minister.

But the Downing Street fightback stumbled on when Feldman was withdrawn from the inquiry after it emerged that he had appointed Cruddas as treasurer. Cameron announced that Lord Gold, a Tory lawyer, would take charge of the inquiry.

Officials initially indicated that the prime minister had hosted a few private dinners in Downing Street for donors who were friends and that no details would be released. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister who is the lead Tory negotiator on party funding, said on the Today programme early yesterday it was "nonsense" to be be obsessed with the private dinners which were attended by the likes of Michael Spencer, the former Tory treasurer, who is a personal friend of Cameron's.

"The fact that that happens does not mean that what you get as a donor to the party is the ability to be invited to Downing Street as a guest of the prime minister," Maude said.

But as Labour made clear they would demand the prime minister answer questions in parliament, Downing Street embarked on its first U-turn of the day. Cameron opened a speech on dementia in London by announcing that he would publish a list of all donors invited to dinners in Downing Street.

The list revealed that, far from inviting friends round for a private dinner, he had hosted six donors plus their wives to a dinner in the main part of 10 Downing Street. He also invited Feldman, Tory co-chair, who is also a donor and Murdo MacLennan, the chief executive of the Telegraph Media Group, who is not a donor.

There were also a further three dinners in the prime minister's flat above No 11. Rowland and Spencer were invited with their wives on, respectively, 28 February 2011 and February 2012. Cameron said: "None of these dinners were fundraising dinners and none of these dinners were paid for by the taxpayer. I have known most of those attending for many years."

On Radio 4's The World at One, Jack Straw, the former Labour foreign secretary, said of the U-turn: "This is symptomatic of pandemonium that has broken out inside the Conservative party at the highest reaches of government.

"Why on earth could they not have said this on Saturday night?"

As Maude prepared to address MPs at 3.30pm, Downing Street officials said they would not release details of dinners or lunches attended by donors at Chequers, the prime minister's country residence.

Sources said it would be too difficult to find the names because a full list is only kept of guests whose meals are paid by the government. Meals for donors are paid by the Conservative party.

Within 30 minutes, however, the Tories changed tack and announced that a list would be released. This showed that Ashcroft and his wife were invited to lunch on 6 June 2010, a month after the general election. Spencer and his partner were invited on 31 May 2010. Rowland and his wife were invited in August 2010, the month he stood down as treasurer.

Ed Miliband dismissed the internal Tory inquiry. "It is completely inadequate, given the scale of these allegations, for an investigation into what happened to be conducted by the Conservative party.

"A Conservative peer, appointed by the prime minister, an inquiry into the Conservative party, by the Conservative party and for the Conservative party – it is a whitewash and everyone knows it," the Labour leader said.

"This scandal speaks to the conduct and character of this prime minister and his government," he said. "Anything short of an independent inquiry will leave a permanent stain on the reputation of this government and this prime minister."