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| Brown will 'assist' donors probe | Brown will 'assist' donors probe |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| The prime minister has vowed to give his backing to the "fullest possible investigation" into Labour funding. | |
| In a letter to the Met Police, Gordon Brown said he was "ready to assist" the inquiry into party donations. | |
| He had asked Labour staff, MPs and peers to "co-operate fully in providing relevant information", he added. | He had asked Labour staff, MPs and peers to "co-operate fully in providing relevant information", he added. |
| Officers are investigating gifts to Labour totalling more than £650,000 which businessman David Abrahams made through four proxy donors. | |
| 'Running commentary' | |
| Downing Street has insisted Mr Brown knew nothing about the funding arrangement with Mr Abrahams. | |
| See how David Abrahams made donations to the Labour PartyIn graphics | |
| Mr Brown has said all the money paid out by Mr Abrahams will be returned. | Mr Brown has said all the money paid out by Mr Abrahams will be returned. |
| In his letter to Met temporary commander Nigel Mawer, the prime minister said that the manner in which the donations had been made was "unacceptable" and that he would urge Labour Party staff and representatives to be "pro-active" in assisting the police. | |
| "And of course I will remind people that it is also vital that you are able to proceed with your enquiries and produce your findings without any running commentary in the media," he added. | "And of course I will remind people that it is also vital that you are able to proceed with your enquiries and produce your findings without any running commentary in the media," he added. |
| Mr Abrahams has said he did not know he was breaking any rules when he made the donations by proxy, claiming that he kept them secret to avoid publicity. | |
| Labour's general secretary Peter Watt has already resigned, saying he knew about Mr Abrahams's funding arrangement, but did not think they had broken the rules. | |
| Labour's chief fundraiser, Jon Mendelsohn, has said Mr Watt told him about the situation last month but had been unhappy about it and had contacted Mr Abrahams with the intention of putting his donations on a proper footing. | |
| Earlier, Downing Street played down a reported rift between Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman over the affair, following revelations about the way Ms Harman's successful campaign for Labour's deputy leadership was funded. | |
| Her team accepted £5,000 from a donor linked to businessman David Abrahams. | |
| Ms Harman earlier appeared to implicate Mr Brown in the affair by revealing his former leadership campaign manager, Chris Leslie, had suggested one of Mr Abrahams's intermediaries, Janet Kidd, as a possible donor. | |
| Asked earlier if she had "dropped Gordon Brown in it," she replied: "No, absolutely not." | |
| Proper footing | |
| Justice Secretary Jack Straw said: "Far from there being any chasm, there is not an inch between them." | |
| In a separate development, the Electoral Commission has asked Ms Harman to explain how she paid for her campaign after BBC Newsnight revealed substantial loans were taken out. | |
| Any such loan should be reported to the Electoral Commission within 30 days. Only one loan, an overdraft facility for £10,000 taken out in October last year has so far been reported. | |
| Even though the contest ended in June, the Harman campaign is still trying to raise money to repay the loans, BBC Newsnight's David Grossman reports. |