Campaign director says backing from Conservative Campaign Headquarters became unequivocal following bill's royal assent
David Cameron's attempt to distance himself from the No to AV campaign was undermined on Tuesday after it emerged that the director of the group has claimed that it has received "100% help" from the Conservative party.
Matthew Elliott, No to AV's campaign director, who is on sabbatical from his job as director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, told Total Politics magazine on 21 April that though he had initially struggled to get support from the Tory party its backing was now unequivocal. "It was only really after royal assent [for the referendum bill] that their mind then turned to, 'Right how do we actually win this thing now we've got it?' It's only really been in the past four weeks since royal assent that we've had the full public support and 100% help from CCHQ."
The no campaign claims to be cross-party, has the support of the majority of Labour MPs and is run by people from both parties. Some 73.3% of the No to AV camp's funding is from people who are readily identifiable as Tory donors. By comparison 15% of the yes campaign's funding is from private individuals.
David Cameron told Radio 4's Today programme that he bore no responsibility for the No to AV campaign, only for the Conservative anti-AV group, after accusations of dirty tricks made against No to AV by Liberal Democrat ministers. Both camps provided the Guardian with details of their employees. The No to AV campaign confirmed that their official appointments include William Norton, the campaign's agent whose name is included in the legal imprint on every piece of campaign literature – including the controversial adverts. He was a Tory candidate for Birmingham Perry Barr at the last election and has advised the Conservative party on tax laws. Dylan Sharpe, the head of press of the campaign, previously worked for Boris Johnson.
The Conservative peer Lord Leach is their chairman and donors Andrew Sells and Peter Cruddas are co-chairman. But the list the no campaign provided includes 14 people with Conservative links in official positions and 16 with Labour links. They said that they had more Labour people because the Conservatives ran their own No campaign.A spokesman said: "There are two campaigns at work. The majority of No to AV are Labour people. Conservatives have their own campaign and their own list."
The Yes to fairer votes campaign said their employees included three secondees from the Electoral Reform Society, two from Finsbury – a political communications agency – and one from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.