Tories' top fundraiser resigns

The Conservatives' head of fund-raising has left the organisation, with the next general election only months away.

At the same time as Jeffery Speed has departed, John Earl, a key member of the election campaigning team who was pilloried in a tabloid newspaper a fortnight ago for his extra- marital affair with a fellow Central Office worker, has changed job.

A senior party insider said yesterday the resignation of Mr Speed, Director of Fund-Raising and the Treasurers' Department, was a big surprise in the run-up to the election, when the Tories' cash-generating exercise should be at its peak.

He said Mr Speed, the brother of a senior Tory backbencher, Sir Keith Speed, did not agreewith Dr Brian Mawhinney, the combative Conservative Party Chairman. "He did not get on with Dr Mawhinney," the campaigner said. He added: "Jeffery was a very senior civil servant within the party hierarchy - to lose him now is a mystery."

Another Tory described Mr Speed, who has been awarded the CBE, as the "ultimate party worker." A Smith Square stalwart, he is credited with having overseen the transformation of the party's finances, almost wiping-out the pounds 15m overdraft and building-up a war chest for the election. Dr Mawhinney announced three months ago that the overdraft was down to pounds 2.5m.

Mr Speed is said to have maintained ties with the constituency associations during a period when grassroots activists became disaffected with the Central Office machine. But his diplomacy has not produced a resurgence of donations from constituencies, fuelling questions as to where the money is really coming from. Figures revealed recently in the Independent showed local supporters are refusing to give cash payments and insisting that any money they give is in the form of loans.

The leaked figures reveal a growing reluctance among constituency associations to dip into their pockets. In the financial year to the end of March, they only met 40.3 per cent of the target set by Central Office - pounds 1.107m in donations against a target of pounds 2.746m. This total was pounds 33,000 down on the 1994-95 tally of pounds 1.140m.

Mr Speed's place is being taken by Tim Cowell OBE.

Mr Earl, whose affair with Caroline Hoy, a Smith Square press officer, was highlighted in a tabloid newspaper a fortnight ago, is also moving job, from Director of the Elections Unit, to replace Mr Cowell.

Mr Earl played an important role in trying to win the recent Hemsworth and Staffordshire South by-elections and the local government elections. As head of the unit, he ran a six-strong team, co-ordinating the design and production of leaflets and posters for the next general election.

Coincidentally, it was Ms Hoy who fielded calls about the management shake-up yesterday. She denied there had been a row between Mr Speed and Dr Mawhinney. Mr Speed, she said, is 59, and "the standard retirement age is now 60. Jeffery is coming to that age and as the party's finances are at such a good level he decided to leave now, to let someone else in."