The Hindu : International : Brown dragged into funding scandal

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Friday, Nov 30, 2007
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International

Brown dragged into funding scandal

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: The funding scandal surrounding the Labour Party deepened on Thursday as Prime Minister Gordon Brown was personally dragged into it after his chief fund-raiser Jon Mendelsohn admitted that he was aware of the illegal arrangement under which a property developer, David Abrahams, gave more than £6,00,000 to the party through proxy donors over a period of three to four years.

The question that was being asked was: did Mr. Brown also know that the party was receiving proxy donations in breach of the country’s funding laws which require all donations of more than £5000 and their sources to be reported to the electoral commission?

Mounting pressure

In an eerie replay of the cash-for-honours scandal that saw the then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief fundraiser Lord Levy being criminally investigated and arrested for his role in raising money from rich businessmen the opposition is calling for a police investigation into the row.

Mr. Brown has claimed that he knew nothing about the arrangement that allowed Mr. Abrahams to give money to the party through his friends and associates, but he is under pressure to hand over the case to Scotland Yard, especially in the light of allegations that Mr. Abrahams may have received favours from the government in return for his donations.

Mr. Abrahams has denied these allegations and Mr. Brown believes that the party’s decision to return the money should be enough to draw the line under the controversy. He has also ordered an internal inquiry.

But as the opposition tried to get maximum political mileage out of Mr. Brown’s mounting difficulties, there were calls for Mr. Mendelsohn to resign.

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