Tory Cabinet Minister accepted a donation from a “corporate investigator” who spied on political campaigners

Nicky Morgan, education secretary, has accepted a donation from a corporate investigator, who spied on political campaigners in the past – the Guardian has reported.

Morgan accepted £3,220 from Paul Mercer. He has in the past been paid £2,500 a month by arms manufacturer BAE for work against Campaign Against the Arms Trade.  Mercer, lives in Loughborough (the constituency Morgan is attempting to win again) and has been canvassing for the Conservatives in the area.

The Guardian have also reported that in 2003 Mercer worked for corporate security firm, The Inkerman Group, “which monitored campaign groups, and was on one occasion part of an eight-person covert unit that infiltrated an anti-capitalist protest”.

Mercer has also worked for the think tank the Adam Smith Institute and he is also author of a book which is critical about the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He was a Conservative councillor in Loughborough between 1987 and 1991. He is standing to be elected as a councillor again next week.