West Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass has expressed his disappointment this week following news that the Electoral Commission is allowing the Lib Dems to keep a £2.4 million gift from a company owned by a convicted fraudster.

UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass this week said he was appalled that the Electoral Commission is pushing UKIP for the return of a £360,000 donation while letting the Lib Dems keep their multi-million pound gift.

Stuart Wheeler, a former Tory donor who donated £100,000 to UKIP’s European Election campaign, has also attacked the Commission’s decision.

Mr Nattrass said: “The Electoral Commission’s decision is extremely disappointing. It is clear the Lib Dems should return the gift which was given to them by a company owned by Michael Brown who is a convicted fraudster. “What sort of message does this decision send out to the electorate? The public is already disillusioned thanks to the MPs expenses fiasco?

“Michael Brown, who is now on the run, is a crook. The Electoral Commission has clearly made the wrong decision.

"It also shows that UKIP have upset the establishment by coming second in the European Elections. If you put your eyes above the parapet they shoot your head off."
Mr Wheeler said: “I am not a member of UKIP but I do support them and this does not seem right.

“The Electoral Commission has now said it does not intend to take proceedings against the Liberal Democrats for the recovery of gifts totaling about £2.4 million pounds given to them by a company controlled by Michael Brown, a man who was not a permissible donor and who is now on the run, having been sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

“It is clear that the donation came from abroad and was therefore entirely against the spirit of the relevant legislation.

“But the Commission has decided to pursue UKIP for recovery of a donation given by somebody who could easily have made the donation through a permissible company and who would have been a permissible donor but for a purely technical slip which is acknowledged by the court to have been entirely inadvertent."