Watchdog unaware of Johnson cash

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The Electoral Commission has said it is "not aware" that Alan Johnson tried to register a number of campaign donations with it before December last year.

The health secretary's team did submit details of over £3,000 in donations for his Labour deputy leadership campaign in December, a spokeswoman said.

That was long after the 60-day limit to declare them - but Mr Johnson's team says they were first declared in May.

The Commission said it was "seeking to clarify" the situation.

Mr Johnson said his campaign team had declared the donations, along with all others during his bid to become deputy leader, to Parliament's Register of Members' Interests in May last year, the Labour Party and also the Electoral Commission.

He said it was only in December that they noticed four donations, including one for £3,334 from Waseem Siddiqui, were not listed on the Electoral Commission's website.

One hundred per cent

His campaign team and the commission then met to find out why the donations were not appearing on the commission's register and they re-submitted the details.

The electoral commission says it intends to publish the details on its website when it has concluded its checks

On Sunday Mr Johnson denied "100%" that he and his team had done anything wrong in declaring the donation.

Questions about the donation were raised by a Sunday Mirror report suggesting that the money had actually been from Mr Siddiqui's brother-in-law.

Mr Johnson said he was "surprised" to hear that the money had not been Mr Siddiqui's, saying his team had complied fully with its legal obligations, checking that the donor was registered to vote and that he was a Labour Party member.

'Checked and registered'

The Sunday Mirror said Waseem Siddiqui was asked to sign a blank cheque by his brother-in-law Ahmed Yar Mohammed, who is treasurer of Croydon Central Labour Party.

In a statement, Ahmed Yar Mohammed said he asked Mr Siddiqui to write a cheque on his behalf because he was busy travelling.

He said: "I did this in good faith and at no point was it my intention to disguise my donation.

"However, I understand that there has been some misunderstanding about this matter so I am writing to the Electoral Commission to clarify the circumstances behind the donation so that this matter could quickly be resolved."

Mr Siddiqui, 50, told the newspaper he did not know who the health secretary was and he had joined the Labour Party as a student member in March last year, on the advice of his brother.

The allegations come days after Peter Hain quit his cabinet posts over a donations row.

Mr Hain resigned as work and pensions secretary and Wales secretary after the Electoral Commission, which is investigating more than £100,000 of undeclared donations to his deputy Labour leadership campaign, passed his case to police.