The spin-doctors of 10 Downing Street insist that Jack is a Gordon Brown supporter who is simply trying to destabilise the Prime Minister. But they are wrong. Jack is a loyal supporter of the new Labour project. So loyal in fact that he lost the chance to lead his own union, the mighty Transport and General Workers (so unpopular is new Labour with rank-and-file trade unionists). Furthermore, if he was following Mr Brown’s instructions, the last thing that he would do at this juncture is breathe a word of criticism about No 10. Gordon’s acolytes have convinced themselves (for the umpteenth time and contrary to all the evidence) that Blair intends to give up tamely and hand over to their man. So their current watchword is “no rocking the boat”. And Jack Dromey is no David Mills. He would never do anything to compromise his wife, the Minister Harriet Harman. So if he is making a public fuss, then he is genuinely beside himself with rage.

Jack Dromey is a shrewd and sophisticated operator who can scarcely be surprised that there is a connection between donations to political parties and peerages. For as long as there have been honours politicians have sold them. In the 18th century the Duke of Wellington observed: “Honours could be bought for either money or party advantage”. And in the 20th century David Lloyd George sold honours on an unprecedented scale.

In 1925 the trade was officially made illegal. But all political parties have continued with something closely resembling the practice. Lord Ashcroft’s peerage, for instance, cannot be unconnected to his enormous donations to the Conservative Party. And only someone with a heart of stone would not feel sorry for the unfortunate Chai Patel. He may be very rich and clever, but he clearly does not have the faintest idea of how the British ruling class works. Despite all his protestations to the contrary, he sounds like a man who believes that he has bought and paid for something (a peerage) and cannot believe that it is not being handed over.

Mr Dromey would also be aware of the extent to which Tony Blair’s office has always raised funds privately. He raised money from a variety of wealthy men to fight for the leadership of the Labour Party more than a decade ago. But it was also suspected that there was extensive fundraising to enable Blair to fight his own party on Clause Four.

I was an elected member of the national executive of the Labour Party in this period and I became aware of something called the “high value donors unit”. It seemed to be run directly from No 10 — outside the normal management structures of the party — and be generally shrouded in mystery. I innocently suggested once that it should come along to the next meeting of the financial and general purposes committee of the NEC and give a report on its activities. I was shot venomous glances from around the table and someone moved hurriedly on to the next item on the agenda.

In part Mr Dromey’s anger reflects the feeling at all levels in the Labour Party that this recent “cash for peerages” scandal goes too far. We all joined the Labour Party because we genuinely thought it was better than that. When put together with Tessa Jowell’s milieu (£300,000 “gifts”, tax avoidance and offshore financial machinations) it all seems very remote from the world of even the average middle-class Labour Party supporter. And for the millions of loyal supporters on council estates and in the run-down inner cities it must all seem extraordinary.

And Mr Dromey’s central point is unanswerable. As treasurer of the Labour Party he should have been told about these loans. That nobody bothered to inform him reflects the scarcely veiled contempt that Tony Blair has for the Labour Party as an institution.

Maybe it is that contempt that has got to Jack. His statement — “I think that it is wrong that Downing Street thinks that it can run the Labour Party. I am determined to defend the democratic integrity of the Labour Party” — speaks to years of resentment in all wings of the party at the way Mr Blair has deliberately stripped out the democratic structures and walked all over its dearest-held beliefs and traditions.

But perhaps Mr Dromey is furious because he has seen things that have not yet been made public. Perhaps facts have finally been revealed to him about new Labour’s inner circle and their adventures in influence-peddling and in the world of the super-rich that he really did not know before. And the enormity of what he has discovered may have made him determined that whoever else may be swept away in the ensuing scandal, it will not be him.

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