LABOUR faces a left-wing backlash after accepting large donations from financiers condemned by unions as “asset strippers”.

Official records for the last quarter of 2006, to be released by the Electoral Commission, are expected to show that the party accepted donations from two private equity investors — Nigel Doughty and Sir Ronald Cohen — and from Jon Aisbitt, a corporate financier. Their gifts of £250,000 each make up a significant share of the £2m in funding the party received for the period.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said Labour should investigate the donations: “Only in the last few weeks has the GMB campaigned to put names to the elite who run the private equity industry and make clear what they do.”

Private equity investors are accused of closing factories and discarding employees while paying just 10% tax on capital gains. Unions suspect that the donations are intended to help to avert a tax crackdown.

Permira, one of Europe’s largest private equity companies, this month met the GMB following job cuts at businesses including the AA and Birds Eye. The union has also served notice that it will fight a private equity bid for Sainsbury’s, led by CVC.

Doughty’s firm has developed a reputation as a tough operator. “The lads who run Doughty Hanson have reasonably brutal behavioural characteristics,” said one senior private equity source.

Doughty owns Nottingham Forest football club, and in 2004 led Ilford Imaging, the world’s biggest black and white film maker, into receivership with the loss of 330 jobs at its Cheshire plant. Pensions were hit, with 1,000 fund members told their benefits would be cut by 20%.

Cohen is founder and former chairman of Apax Partners, a leading private equity firm. He sold his stake in 2005 and his fortune is estimated at £260m by The Sunday Times Rich List. Under his leadership Apax was involved in buying Focus, the UK’s third largest DIY chain, which last week was put up for sale with debts of £280m.

Private equity sources said the investors withdrew substantial dividends. Apax bought into the business for £120m and saw its investment paid back twice over. Cohen has given £800,000 to Labour and is considered Gor-don Brown’s financial backer.

Aisbitt is a former corporate financier at Goldman Sachs and a director of Man Group, Britain’s biggest hedge fund manager. He donated £250,000 to Blair’s 2005 election campaign and pledged £2m to help to create a city academy in Brighton.

A Labour spokesman said: “The Labour party receives support from many individuals and organisations that share our values of economic prosperity coupled with social justice.”

- Hazel Blears, the Labour chairman, has announced she will run for the party's deputy leadership. Blears is standing as a Blairite and says voters "will take a dim view of us if we say 'that was all rubbish and we're different now'."

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