The statement follows newspaper reports earlier this week that suggested Mr Robinson had given money to Mr Blair's blind trust or was approached to contribute to it.

In the Commons on Thursday, the prime minister's official spokesman Alastair Campbell was accused of "improper soliciting" of £250,000 for Tony Blair's office from Mr Robinson before the general election.

Julian Lewis MP made the claims in the Commons

The allegation against Mr Campbell was made by Tory Julian Lewis, MP for New Forest East, who claimed Downing Street had put pressure on Mr Robinson not to include the damaging claim in his autobiography, An Unconventional Minister.

A statement released on behalf of the trustees by Leader of the Lords Baroness Jay said: "We were the sole trustees of the Labour Leader's Office Fund (LLOF) for the entirety of its existence.

"In light of the inaccurate stories in the press we have checked the accounts of the LLOF and we can confirm that Geoffrey Robinson did not donate to the fund.

"We have only taken this exceptional step in this case because of the sustained nature of this misinformation campaign."

On Wednesday, Downing Street denied anyone connected with Number 10 had sought to encourage Mr Robinson to tone down the book, and said the ex-minister was not regarded as "a pariah".

The prime minister's spokesman insisted it would be both improper and impossible for anybody connected with the government to threaten Mr Robinson with the consequences of a Department of Trade inquiry into his affairs if the book proved hostile to Mr Blair.

Alastair Campbell: "Entirely untrue"

Raising the issue in the Commons, Dr Lewis asked Commons leader Margaret Beckett: "Will you try to arrange for the prime minister to come to the House next week to explain what action he is taking about a very serious matter, namely the pressure being placed on Mr Robinson by members of the prime minister's office not to refer in his memoirs to the improper soliciting before the election of £250,000 from him for the funding of the prime minister's private office.

"Is not the seriousness of these allegations added to by the fact that the person who made that solicitation before the election is now the prime minister's press secretary?"

Mrs Beckett replied: "I am not aware of any such concrete information.

"Consequently I think there is no point in any suggestion that Mr Blair should come and refer in this House to reports that appear in the press - some of which I must say sound increasingly far-fetched."

Later, Mr Campbell said: "My response to it is that this is a statement abusing parliamentary privilege to say something that is entirely untrue."

The DTI Permanent Secretary, Sir Michael Scholar, has also replied to a letter from shadow trade and industry secretary Angela Browning asking him to investigate the allegations Downing Street had put pressure on Mr Robinson to tone down his book.

Sir Michael wrote back to Mrs Browning, saying the DTI's inquiries were being properly conducted.