LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party said on Sunday it had debts of $9.4 million but denied reports that its financial difficulties could undermine its ability to run election campaigns next year.þþThe British Broadcasting Corp. and The Independent on Sunday said the state of the party's finances was revealed in a leaked internal budget document, which said Labor ``is in the worst financial position it has ever been.''þþThe document, sent to members of Labor's national executive, warned that the financial difficulties could hamper the party's ability to contest next year's elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, the BBC and the newspaper reported.þþLabor said on Sunday it would contest the elections vigorously.þþ``Parties inevitably have debts after general election campaigns and we are working to our business plan agreed with the bank to deal with the current situation,'' said a party spokesman on customary condition of anonymity.þþ``As for future campaigns, people can be assured we will be fighting the Scottish and Welsh campaigns with sufficient vigor,'' he added.þþThe party's general secretary, David Triesman, acknowledged the ``financial challenges.''þþ``It is true that there are those kinds of problems, but we are making difficult choices and we are working our way through them,'' he told delegates at a conference in Newport, in Shropshire, western England.þþLabor, which came to power in 1997 with a landslide election victory against the Conservative Party and was re-elected last year, receives huge financial donations from the trade union movement.þþYet in recent months, tensions between union leaders and the government have led to some funding being withdrawn.þþUnionists have complained that Labor has abandoned its working class roots in favor of courting business and have criticized Blair for moving the party from the left of the political spectrum to the center.þþLabor also receives large sums of money from private donors, but a string of negative headlines after controversial donations have prompted the government to consider making political parties taxpayer funded.þ
Source: NY Times
