David Abrahams

This morning, when I heard that a Labour donor had channelled his donations through other people in order to avoid having to disclose them I thought that this was going to be an embarrassment to Labour, but not much more. Provided they'd done their part of the bargain, however minimally, they should be safe. So the news that the Labour Party's General Secretary has resigned, because he knew the truth about the donations takes this to a new level.

Under the PPERA it is true that the onus was on the people acting as agent for David Abrahams, but the admission of Peter Watt that he knew the true nature of these donations is a clear abuse of the Act. The Electoral Commission are investigating, and given their track record on this sort of thing, any decision that allows Labour to keep hold of the donations will look extremely dodgy indeed. When UKIP were deprived of their donation, I remember wondering whether this would have happened to a 'major' party. We'll know soon.