"Anyone got a spare £2.4m?"

That is what the Lib Dems will no doubt soon be saying!

As reported by The Times the business that donated £2.4m to the Lib Dems has been found by a High Court Judge to be fraudulent. Following this ruling the Electoral Commission has said it will study the decision in detail.

So what does this mean for the Lib Dems? Well the Electoral Commission will study the report and then look at whether the Lib Dems broke the rules when agreeing to receive the donation. The Lib Dems are claiming they received the donation in good faith and therefore have done nothing wrong.

Should the Commission find against the Lib Dems, they could be forced to pay the money back. Money which they clearly haven’t got, having spent it on the 2005 General Election campaign. Now this shouldn’t prove to much of an initial problem as I would expect the Lib Dems can raise the money if they need to.

However should there be a General Election next year, the party could find themselves with a small campaign budget having already asked for donations to repay the £2.4m. Especially as any investigation will take many months, meaning the gap between the two could be quite small.