BRITAIN:Gordon Brown battled to keep the focus on the reform of all party political funding yesterday as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats maintained the pressure over Labour's concealed donations scandal.
Conservative leader David Cameron signalled his readiness to resume all-party talks about new funding rules provided Labour's financial relationship with the trade unions was also addressed. At the same time Mr Cameron continued to maintain a distinction between that issue and Labour's failure to lawfully declare more than £650,000 (€910,000) in donations made by proxy by property developer David Abrahams.
Meanwhile, the donations scandal took a further twist last night as cabinet minister Peter Hain apologised after revealing that further donations to his deputy leadership campaign were not properly registered.
The work and pensions secretary said he had informed the electoral commission and was reviewing all donations to his campaign.
Mr Hain last week admitted he had failed to register a £5,000 donation from Mr Brown's fundraiser, Jon Mendelsohn.
Liberal Democrat leadership contender Chris Huhne yesterday met the head of Durham CID to encourage an investigation into whether Mr Abrahams gained any advantage in respect of local planning decisions because of his financial support for Labour. At the same time Mr Cameron insisted Labour had either been "utterly dysfunctional" or was not telling the truth about the affair, which has already triggered a Scotland Yard inquiry.
With Strathclyde Police in receipt of a complaint about an alleged illegal donation to the leadership campaign of Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, meanwhile, the SNP repeated its claim that Ms Alexander was being sustained in office to provide "a human shield" for the prime minister.
Ms Alexander has resisted pressure to resign over the acceptance of a £950 (€1,330) donation from a Jersey-based businessman not registered to vote in UK elections, saying she is confident an inquiry will clear her of any "intentional wrong-doing".
However, the SNP maintained Ms Alexander had lost "all credibility" following the disclosure of a letter of thanks to the Jersey-based benefactor suggesting she may have known he lived offshore and newspaper reports that her campaign team had had doubts about the donation a month ago.
Scotland's deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "The only reason Ms Alexander is staying in post is to act as a human shield for Gordon Brown whose sole priority is not her interests or Scottish Labour; it's to prevent the house of cards collapsing down south."
Mr Cameron also resumed questioning the part played by Mr Mendelsohn after he discovered the practice by which Mr Abrahams made his donations through third parties.
"We are being asked to believe that Mendelsohn was hired by Gordon Brown, that he found out about these secret donations. He somehow thought it was legal, but at the same time was deeply unhappy about it but told nobody," Mr Cameron said. "Either this organisation is utterly dysfunctional or we are not being given the whole truth."
In a speech yesterday Mr Brown promised new legislation "quickly" to reform party funding rules, while speaking of his anger about the latest embarrassment to his party. "It's unacceptable. I'm angry about it, but we have got to deal with it," said the prime minister.