INDEPENDENT Police and Crime Commissioner candidate Martyn Underhill has refused to name the two Poole businessmen who are backing him to the tune of £23,000.

A row erupted among fellow Dorset candidates as to why the former police officer will not reveal the two individuals who are bank-rolling his election campaign.

One runs a company which is said to be a “household name” and has given a financial donation of £15,000.

The second has donated £8,000 in kind to help post fliers across Dorset.

Mr Underhill claimed yesterday he had “nothing to hide” and added: “I want a level playing field. I am not naming my sponsors until they name theirs. I won’t be bullied.

“The field is hardly level from the start. After the election I am required to detail all donations received over £50. The political parties only have to declare donations over £1,500. And even then it is done through their supporters associations.”

He added that his supporters are “not terrorists, pseudo police providers or huge American corporations”.

Three of the candidates transparency pages are posted online:

Martyn Underhill

Rachel Rogers

Nick King

Mr Underhill added: “Both of these businessmen have no connection to the police and believe, like I do, that Dorset Police should not be overseen by a party political candidate.

"My main supporter is a successful businessman with core values similar to mine. His company is a household name. He wants nothing in return for his support, he just wants to see an independent person having the chance to oversee Dorset Police.

"It is naive to think you can run a countywide campaign against the Tory machine in Dorset without help financially.

“At the moment we have a status quo. No one has yet named an individual who has donated.”

Read Martyn Underhill's full blog posting about transparency

By law no candidate standing in an election has to reveal who has donated money to their campaign until 28-days after voting.

But Conservative candidate Nick King has called for “complete transparency”.

“If you have got two people giving you money, and they are business people, what’s to say they don’t have an interest in a particular area and may therefore expect their proprieties to be ahead of other people.

“Obviously he doesn’t have to name these individuals but we are talking about true transparency here.”

Labour candidate Rachel Rogers suggested Mr Underhill should reconsider his stance given the recent allegations made about independent candidate for Lincolnshire Mervyn Barrett being backed by companies pushing for police privatisation.

“Clearly Martyn is well within his rights not name any of his donors until after the election but given the recent allegations he may well consider it wise to think about naming these people before the election just so the electorate know they don’t have a vested interest in his victory.”

And Lib Dem candidate Andy Canning said he is yet to put his transparency statement online but added that all his funding has come from Lib Dem members in Dorset.

“If he has nothing to hide why isn’t he saying?”

All four candidates will be blogging for the Bournemouth Echo in the run up to the election. Read the blogs and introductory posts at bournemouthecho.co.uk/pcc, and tell us what you'd like to ask them.