Labour donations up the swanney again - reffered to Police

[Dartzap]

Beeb

Donations row referred to police
The row over a property developer's donations to Labour has been referred to the police by the Electoral Commission, it has been confirmed.

The Lib Dems and Conservatives had already urged the Metropolitan Police to investigate, after Gordon Brown said donations were not "lawfully declared".

The London force said it would "receive and review" the commission's report and see what the outcome of that was.

Mr Brown has launched his own inquiry and pledged to pay back the money.

And he pledged to pay back more than £650,000 donated by David Abrahams, under the names of four other people.

Under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendum Act 2000, political parties must register the details of any donor making gifts through a third party, and report them to the Electoral Commission.

'Completely unacceptable'

In this case, Mr Brown has said donations made over four years, under the names Janet Kidd, Janet Dunn, John McCarthy and Ray Ruddick, were not "lawfully declared" and were "completely unacceptable".

All four people were associates of Mr Abrahams.

Asked why he had not called in the police himself, Mr Brown said he was following convention in referring the matter first to the Electoral Commission, which was carrying out its own inquiry.

But the Lib Dems say there appear to have been "serious breaches" of the law and police should investigate "fully".

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair wrote to Lib Dem environment spokesman Chris Huhne, who had called for an investigation, and said: "Donations to political parties are dealt with in the first instance by the Electoral Commission.

"The Crown Prosecution Service and the Electoral Commission have been in dialogue with us this afternoon.

"The Electoral Commission has now decided to refer matters to the Metropolitan Police for further investigation. The next step is for us to receive and review their reference report."

Internal inquiry

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said: "The Electoral Commission has been in dialogue with the CPS since 26 November and this afternoon held further discussions with the CPS and Met Police.

"The commission has now decided to refer the matter to the Metropolitan Police Service for further investigation."

BBC correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said this meant the commission's inquiry was now essentially over.

Mr Brown has launched an internal inquiry, headed up by Labour peer Lord Whitty, who will report back to Lords McCluskey and Harries who will advise on what changes are needed.

The Metropolitan Police have just wrapped up the 19-month, £1.4 million "cash-for-honours" investigation into party funding, which was prompted by an MP's complaint.

That inquiry, which cast a shadow over Tony Blair's final months as prime minister, ended with no charges being brought.

Resignation

Labour's general secretary Peter Watt has already resigned over the latest row - saying he knew about Mr Abrahams' funding arrangement, but did not think it broke the rules.

Labour's chief fundraiser Jon Mendelsohn has said Mr Watt told him about it last month but he had been unhappy about it and had contacted Mr Abrahams with the intention of putting his donations on a proper footing.



Harriet Harman is also under fire, as it has emerged that she accepted a £5,000 donation from Janet Kidd towards her successful campaign to become Labour's deputy leader.

One of her rival contenders, Hilary Benn, had turned down the same amount from Ms Kidd, because he had been told it was actually from David Abrahams - he later accepted it under Mr Abrahams' name. Gordon Brown also turned down a donation from Janet Kidd.

Ms Harman says she had no idea the money came from Mr Abrahams, and had accepted it on the basis that Mrs Kidd was a known Labour donor. She said she acted in good faith, "within both the letter and the spirit of the law".

But in heated exchanges earlier, the Tories demanded she make a Commons statement on the "sleaze scandal that engulfs her".

*groans* I swear Brown has some sort of gypsy curse or something. Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. Well, I'm sure the Met will have another fun time....

[Admiral Valdemar]

The Anglo-Saxon nations seem to have a thing for gay sex scandals and illegal party donations all of a sudden. I blame Satan, in league with the Freemasons.

I do love how Brown's golden entry into Number 10 has been shotdown within several months. Even Blair couldn't fuck up that quickly.

[Ubiquitous]

This is all very entertaining. I am looking forward to Question Time and This Week tonight.

Diane Abbot blaming it on Tony Blair on C4 news right now. For anyone who watches This Week religiously: are you surprised?

[Androsphinx]

Again, I'm mainly surprised at the Brown administration's response - the immediate resignation of a senior official, which does nothing to stop the story from growing. As with the lost CDs, it would seem to make more sense to hold back the resignation - at least until after PMQT on a Wednesday - and try to use it to end the story.

Allistar Campbell is still looking for a job...