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A Conservative Party treasurer was forced to resign last night after secretly recorded video footage caught him offering to sell access to the Prime Minister. Peter Cruddas, a senior party fundraiser, told undercover journalists from the Sunday Times that donations worth a couple of hundred thousand pounds would secure regular invitations to dinner with David Cameron and his Cabinet colleagues. Mr Cruddas explained to the prospective donors that annual sums of around £250,000 would guarantee “premier league” status within the party which would allow them to spend time with Mr Cameron and to raise policy concerns with Downing Street. “It will be awesome for your business,” he said. Last night, Mr Cruddas tendered his resignation and claimed that he had been exaggerating donors’ influence during the meeting. “I deeply regret any impression of impropriety arising from my bluster in that conversation,” he said. “Clearly there is no question of donors being able to influence policy or gain undue access to politicians.” His characterisation of the situation had been very different when he thought he was speaking privately. Mr Cruddas is seen boasting that he could help big donors get invited to No. 10 or Chequers and claimed they would be able to lobby Mr Cameron and George Osborne directly. The reporters were pretending to be foreign wealth fund executives based in Liechtenstein, making them ineligible to make donation
Adrift since a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan last March, a Japanese fishing boat has been spotted off the west coast of Canada - more than 3,500 miles (5,633km) from where it went missing. The 150-foot (46-metre) vessel was seen about 138 miles (222km) off British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands. The boat was spotted by a Canadian Forces aircraft on a routine surveillance patrol, said Transport Canada, and its Japanese owner has been notified. An aerial inspection suggested that there was no-one aboard. A military photograph showed the rusting ship floating 278 kilometres (150 nautical miles) off the southern coast of Haida Gwaii islands, some 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) north of Vancouver. “The vessel is considered an obstruction to navigation,” said Transport Canada in a statement, adding that it was being monitored for pollutio
Syrian armoured troops met heavy resistance from defected soldiers as they launched an offensive today to re-take a small town which has been held for months by rebels. Government forces moved into Saraqeb covered by heavy shelling, with 26 tanks rolling into the area around the central market. The soldiers were accompanied by shabiha, the militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and plain-clothes security agents. They arrived by the bus load to arrest scores of people in raids, activists reported. Today’s march upon Saraqeb came 11 days after regime troops retook the nearby city of Idlib, the capital of the north-western province of the same name and a hotbed of resistance to Assad’s repressive rule. Communications to Saraqeb were cut today, but activists there told the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that in the market area, ar
‘Bizarre and funny as a Dickens novel, capable of redemptive emotion’
Johann ‘Johnny’ Jebsen withstood torture and saved tens of thousands
Many of the attacks on the Budget are irrelevant. George Osborne will soon face bigger challenges
Obama needs all his skill to defuse the growing US row over a racial shooting
In life’s ambushes, the brave rush in where the timid fear to tread
Nursery staff and childminders without even ‘basic literacy or numeracy skills’ are being allowed to work at pre-school groups
A Russian banker remains “critical but stable” under armed guard in hospital after being shot in a suspected assassination attempt
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The move appeared designed to win support from developing countries that have questioned the US’s grip on the leadership of the institution
Ron Sandler, the former Northern Rock boss, is to step down as chairman of Britain’s biggest closed life assurance fund later this year
Jon Corzine may have ordered $200m of client funds to be sent to one of his company’s own accounts three days before the broker’s collapse
The FPC, the Bank’s new stability watchdog, sayes there has not yet been enough debate about limits on the size of mortgages
Kevin Eason, our motor racing correspondent, tweets from the trackside in Kuala Lumpur
Manchester City manager snubs the media after point at Stoke City hands initiative to Manchester United in title race
Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 0: Alyson Rudd watches Arsene Wenger’s team rack up another victory with ease against Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa
President Obama’s response to the death of an unarmed schoolboy in Florida has been attacked as divisive and “disgraceful”
A teenager was shot dead and at least 65 people were injured when security forces clashed with football fans furious at an order to suspend their club
Abdelkader Merah, the older brother of the Toulouse gunman, has told police he is “very proud” of Mohammed Merah for killing seven
Pope Benedict XVI called for Cuba to dismantle its communist government last night as he landed in Mexico for a tour of Latin America
Already a father and soon to be a husband, Rufus Wainwright reveals how family life inspired his best album yet
A new exhibition reminds the celebrated neurosurgeon Henry Marsh that we still don’t know our own minds
On the eve of Tate’s retrospective, economist Don Thompson argues that Damien Hirst has changed the art market for ever