THE Labour party is investigating how a man who lives in a former council house and drives a battered Transit van is officially listed as one of the party’s biggest donors.

Ray Ruddick, a builder from Newcastle upon Tyne, is supposed to have donated more than £104,000 to party funds since Gordon Brown became prime minister.

Ruddick, who bought his home for £12,000, and a woman he is linked to, are reported to have donated £222,000 in the past six months, making them collectively the party’s largest donors behind Lord Sainsbury and an Anglo-Iranian businessman.

Ruddick works closely with David Abrahams, a wealthy property developer and leading Labour figure in the northeast. Abrahams contributed to Hilary Benn’s deputy leadership campaign and stood unsuccessfully as a Labour parliamentary candidate in 1992 in North Yorkshire.

The second alleged donor, Janet Kidd, works as a secretary to Abrahams. On one day in July alone, according to a list of Labour donors published by the party, they both made identical donations of £80,000. In total Ruddick and Kidd are listed as having donated £381,850 to the party since 2003.

Ruddick, 53, is reported to have initially denied making the donations, saying: “I do not like the Labour party or politicians.” But when he was pressed he told The Mail on Sunday: “I made donations to Labour . . . which totalled £80,000. Janet also made the same size donations on the same day. These are the first payments either I or Janet have ever given to Labour.”

Abrahams has refused to rule out whether it was he who made the large donations to the party. “I am not bothered,” he told The Sunday Times early today.

Chris Grayling a Conservative frontbencher, said: “Gordon Brown promised to bring a fresh approach to British politics. He and the Labour party need to give a pretty clear explanation of the circumstances surrounding these donations.”

Under election laws anyone giving to a party on behalf of someone else must inform the party they are doing so.

Last night a party spokesman said: “It is important that the Labour party is beyond reproach in this matter.”

Times Recommends

• The playboy and the Tory party leader
• Bin Laden's family tree is impenetrable jungle
• Paul McCartney