Labour's secret donor

Michael Wild Political Editor North East and Cumbria

Back in 2007 not many people outside the Labour party had heard the name David Abrahams.

An exclusive interview with Tyneside businessman David Abrahams who donated £600,000 to the Labour party.

A Tyneside property developer, he lived in a suburb of Newcastle and - apart from a short spell as a Labour councillor - mostly kept himself out of the limelight.

Yet he was a man with influential friends.

When Tony Blair made a speech in Sedgefield announcing he was to stand down from Parliament, David Abrahams was in the front row watching.

Party donor

What many people did not realise was that Mr Abrahams was one of the Labour party's biggest donors, giving more than £660,000 to the party between 2003 and 2007.

But it was the manner of those donations which were to catapult him - and assorted Labour Ministers and party treasurers - onto the front pages.

Mr Abrahams said he did not want the publicity associated with being a big political donor.

David Abrahams at Tony Blair's farewell speech

So he gave the cash under other people's names - in particular his employees Raymond Ruddick and Janet Kidd plus his solicitor John McCarthy and the wife of one of his employees Janet Dunn.

The problem was that under the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act of 2000, people donating more than £5,000 should do so in their own names

And it is the job of the party treasurer to check the identity of all donors.

Breaking party rules

Just who knew the money was really from David Abrahams was at first unclear.

It later emerged that Labour general secretary Peter Watt did - although he says he did not realise it broke party rules - but he resigned soon after anyway.

Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman

Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman also got caught up in the mess after accepting "in good faith" a £5,000 donation, apparently from Janet Kidd.

In November 2007 the police were called in - but at the end of the day there was not enough evidence to charge anybody.

Meanwhile, Labour promised to repay all the money.

And there the story ends - well more or less.

Unanswered questions

Except there are many questions which still have not been really answered.

Why give the money through other people's names in the first place?

David Abrahams quoted at the time of the original scandal

Did those people even know?

And who really benefitted from the arrangement?

We will be asking Mr Abrahams about those issues and also finding out if he still supports the Government.

We will also be hearing about his big regeneration plans to create jobs in the North East.

It should be worth watching.

Watch the Politics Show on BBC One at 12:00 on Sunday.

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