In September, the Conservative Party Board decided that the Party’s staff and resources would be neutral in the forthcoming EU referendum. As we wrote at the time, it was a wise decision in the best interests of a fair referendum and in the best interests of the Conservative Party.
Since then, Tory eurosceptics have been increasingly troubled by a stream of stories about the involvement of senior Conservative officials in the pro-EU campaign – digital experts Tom Edmonds and Craig Elder signing a contract with the Remain camp; Stephen Gilbert, the Party’s Deputy Chairman, working part-time for the campaign’s pollsters; and Lord Feldman, the Party’s Chairman, allegedly going so far as to fundraise for the pro-Brussels campaign.
In response to these reports, Steve Baker MP, Co-Chairman of Conservatives for Britain, has written to Lord Feldman expressing his concern that such actions “go against the spirit – and perhaps the letter – of the resolution made by the Party’s board.”
Baker’s letter includes 24 specific questions for the Party Chairman seeking to establish the details of the involvement of Feldman, Gilbert, Edmonds and Elder in the pro-EU campaign, and asking whether they are really consistent with the official policy of neutrality. Here is the letter in full: