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Donor scam: Brown promises help to police

Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said ina letter that he will co-operate fully with a police inquiry into illegal donations to his governing Labour Party.

Updated on: Dec 1, 2007, 22:53:23 IST
None | By , London
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Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown will co-operate fully with a police inquiry into illegal donations to his governing Labour Party, he said on Friday in a letter to the detective in charge.

HT Image
HT Image

“I wanted to write to you at the outset of your investigation to make it absolutely clear that you will not only have my co-operation in your enquiries but my support for the fullest possible investigation,” he said.

“What happened in relation to these donations was unacceptable and it is in the public interest that any question of impropriety is answered.”

In hapless free fall along with his Labour Party over the fund-raising (over £650,000) from businessman David Abrahams by proxy, Gordon Brown is facing the most nightmarish crisis in his long political carrier. The Election Commission said on Thursday night that it had asked the police to inquire if there had possibly been a breach of transparency laws regarding party funding.

The open war between Brown and his deputy Harriet Harman, who has named a member of Brown’s team of suggesting that she take a donation from one of Abrahams proxies for her election campaign, has escalated.

The attempt to distance himself from the scandal too does not seem to be successful so far. Brown accepted immediately after the revelation about Abrahams donations that they were not open and thus illegal, but said he did not have any knowledge of the donations until last week. But then Abrahams has now hinted that he was close to the Prime Minister. Picture of his with various Labour leaders have now been published.

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