The DUP tried to stop publication of details of its spending on the EU referendum campaign before this month's snap Assembly election, it has been revealed.
The party campaigned to leave the European Union and took out an expensive wrap-around advertisement reading "Vote To Leave EU" in London's Metro newspaper.
In February, it was revealed that the DUP's £425,000 Brexit campaign was bankrolled by pro-Union group the Constitutional Research Council (CRC).
The CRC is a group of pro-Union business figures chaired by former vice chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party Richard Cook.
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The names of donors in Northern Ireland are automatically withheld due to Troubles-era rules which sought to protect their security. That had prompted speculation that prominent Leave campaigners were using the DUP to support the Leave campaign without the need to publish their names.
At the time CRC was revealed as a donor, DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson rejected this suggestion, saying the group had donated to the DUP because the main Leave campaign had already reached the limit of its spend.
This morning, The Detail reported on emails obtained through Freedom of information requests that show the DUP tried to delay the publication of the donor's information until a week after the March 2 Assembly election. The details of CRC's donation was published a week before polling day.
The DUP email stated: “We’ve noticed in the press various stories to the effect of, ‘the EU Spending returns are soon to be published by the Electoral Commission’. Our friends in the media frequently get things wrong, not least when it comes to their coverage of hard-pressed regulators. But we’d obviously like clarity on this point please.
“Therefore we’d be grateful if you could please confirm that the Electoral Commission, in accordance with both best practice and past precedent, will obviously not be publishing the returns during the Northern Ireland Assembly election campaign?”
The commission responded by saying the timing of the election was not a "practical impediment to publication" and that it was "acting in the interest of transparency".
Four days before information about the donation was released, the DUP's Sir Jeffrey Donaldson again emailed to ask that publication be delayed for a week to “avoid interfering with the Northern Ireland Assembly elections”.
This request was also rejected.
In revealing the group behind the donation in February, Mr Donaldson said the DUP had shown its commitment to transparency and wanted to be "as open and transparent as possible."
