Brown savaged over illegal donations

1.18.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 29th Nov 2007

Gordon Brown [Image: Rex Features]

Gordon Brown's competence as PM has come under fire during heated Commons exchanges following the donations row. Acting Liberal Democrat Leader Vincent Cable said he had gone "from Stalin to Mr Bean" in a matter of weeks, "creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos." Property developer David Abrahams gave Labour more than £650,000 under other people's names over four years. It has emerged that Labour's chief fundraiser Jon Mendelsohn was told about it last month, but did not tell anyone else - he said he wanted to sort out the matter with Mr Abrahams and explain it to him personally. Chris Huhne MP has written to Met Chief Ian Blair asking him to investigate whether there is a conflict of interest over Mr Abraham's hidden donations to the Labour Party and a planning approval granted to him when the Department of Transport's Highways Agency lifted its objection. In the Commons yesterday Communities Secretary Hazel Blears promised to look into the details of the planning application.

Vince Cable said "This sleazy affair is far more serious than initially thought and could be a matter for a criminal investigation. We need to know which ministers knew about these donations. And why did Harriet Harman accept money from an unknown donor when both Hilary Benn and Gordon Brown turned it down? "Most importantly we need new legislation to reverse the arms race in party spending and the over dependence on rich individuals by setting strict caps on donations and strict limits on party spending."