Britain: British Prime Minister Tony Blair suffered fresh embarrassment yesterday as the "loans for peerages" row forced fresh disclosures and further accelerated proposals for the reform of party political funding.
Ahead of today's meeting of its National Executive Committee, the Labour Party published the names of 12 wealthy businessmen who secretly lent the party £13,950,000 in the run-up to last year's general election.
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, also announced plans to amend the Electoral Administration Bill currently before parliament to force parties to disclose all future loans on the same basis as donations.
At the same time Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott tried to turn the heat on the Tories, challenging Conservative leader David Cameron "to match his words on openness with actions" by publishing the details of all loans raised by his party.
However, Conservative treasurer Jonathan Marland said he saw no reason for his party to follow Labour's example.
"Labour are in a very big hole, of course," Mr Marland told BBC 2's Newsnight programme: "We are not in the same hole. They [ Labour] are embroiled in a serious mess relating to promises they have given to people who have lent them money. We are not in this mess because we are not in power."
The extent of that Labour "mess" was further revealed yesterday amid reports that a fourth millionaire Labour backer had his proposed peerage blocked by the Appointments Commission after Mr Blair twice defied calls for disclosure of the secret loans. It was newspaper revelations about the loans which last week prompted outraged Labour treasurer Jack Dromey to complain that he and other party officials had been "kept in the dark" and to initiate his own inquiry, the outcome of which will be reported to the NEC today.
The London Times said Baroness Dean, the Labour member of the Appointments Commission, had warned 10 Downing Street to disclose any more covert loans or risk losing more peers from the proposed list. When Number 10 failed to confirm that Sir Gulam Noon had made a loan of £250,000 the commission responded by blocking his nomination.
Signalling the potential for further embarrassment for Mr Blair, Sir Gulam's "friends" also hinted that he might be prepared to name a senior Labour official who, he says, told him to keep his loan a secret and that he had no obligation to disclose it.
Confirming his intention to amend the law to require disclosure of all future loans, the lord chancellor said: "The system has not been cleaned up enough and we need to change it."
As an issue affecting all the parties, Lord Falconer said he hoped they and the government and the Electoral Commission would be able to work constructively to find a solution which allowed for greater transparency and fairness.
However, the Conservative leader in the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, said Lord Falconer had behaved "like a burglar caught with a bag full of swag saying he only wanted to polish the silver". The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both backed the government move on loans disclosure, although the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the new law should be made retrospective, as there appeared to be a link between large donors and peerages.
Mr Cameron also proposed a cap on donations from individuals, trade unions, corporations and institutions set initially at £50,000, and additional state funding of parties based on the number of votes received at the previous general election. However, Number 10 said former civil servant Sir Hayden Phillips would have until the end of the year to complete his review of party funding. The prime minister's official spokesman said the review had to have regard to the complexity of the issues.