Levy accuses Brown over funding

May 11 2008

Tony Blair's former chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, said it was "inconceivable" Gordon Brown did not know about the secret loans which led to the "cash for honours" inquiry.

Lord Levy repeated his assertion that Mr Brown's central role in the 2005 General Election campaign meant he must have been aware that the party was receiving substantial sums in loans which were not declared to the Electoral Commission.

In an interview with Andrew Marr's AM programme on BBC1, he said it was Mr Brown's job to know how the campaign was being funded.

"The returns to the Electoral Commission are showing quite clearly where all the donations are coming from," he said.

"I never met Gordon once during that time, but if you were the leader - and Gordon was leading the campaign - surely you would be sitting discussing what was going on.

"It would be inconceivable that he really didn't know what was going on."

Mr Brown has always denied that he knew anything of the £14 million lent to the party by wealthy supporters to help bankroll the election campaign - an assertion he repeated last month in the House of Commons.

Scotland Yard launched an inquiry into claims that honours were being corruptly awarded to party backers after it emerged that a number of the people who made loans were nominated peerages.

Lord Levy, who was a central figure in the investigation, was cleared after prosecutors decided that no charges should be brought in relation to any of the allegations.