THE ELECTORAL Commission is being asked to investigate whether Ed Balls worked for his close ally Gordon Brown while on the payroll of a charity before becoming an MP, in possible breach of electoral law.

For more than six months, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury have stonewalled Conservative demands to reveal whether Balls held a security pass to government buildings while working for the Smith Institute in 2004 and 2005. Last week Balls, who is now education secretary, also declined to answer the question.

The case highlights the close links between the institute and Brown’s private office. The Tories say that if Balls retained his pass, it would indicate that he had been working for Brown while being paid by the charity.

“Balls has always been Brown’s bag carrier, but it would be a breach of electoral law if the charity was paying for someone who was actually working for Brown,” said Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary.

“There have been huge questions over Brown’s relationship with the Smith Institute. If Balls did have a pass, it is the first concrete indication that Brown may have been receiving support that he should not have been. It speaks volumes that they won’t answer the question.” Any charity that paid an employee working for a political party would be considered to have made a donation in kind. The failure of the beneficiary to record such donations is a criminal offence, with a maximum jail sentence of 12 months.

The Smith Institute, a think tank with charitable status, denies funding any political activity.

This weekend the Tories are submitting a complaint to the Electoral Commission and John Lyon, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. They want Brown to be challenged over whether Balls had a pass.

The Smith Institute’s charitable objective is “to advance education in the field of research into the economy of the UK”.

In July 2004, when Balls was selected to stand as an MP for the West Yorkshire constituency of Normanton, he was required to resign from his job as chief economic adviser to Brown.

He was offered a position as senior research fellow at the Smith Institute, based in offices next to the New Statesman magazine, owned by Brown’s friend and Labour MP, Geoffrey Robinson.

Brown’s links with the institute first came under scrutiny when it emerged the charity had held several meetings at 11 Downing Street during his time as chancellor. Its director was Wilf Stevenson, a close friend of Brown’s who has become one of his special advisers.

Following newspaper reports of the charity’s political links, the Charity Commission launched an investigation, which found it had not been properly supervised by the trustees and had become exposed to concerns that it was involved in “party political activity inappropriate for a charity”.

The commission found no evidence that Brown had used the charity to further his “political aspirations”, and there were no concerns over Ball’s employment.

A spokesman for Balls said last week he had not worked for Brown after leaving the Treasury in July 2004. “He did not have an office [in the Treasury], a phone line or an e-mail address,” said the spokesman. He was unable to comment on a security pass.

A Treasury spokesman said the department never commented on the individual security passes. A Downing Street spokesman said Brown denied “any wrongdoing whatsoever.” The spokesman added: “The Charity Commission looked at this in detail and also found no wrongdoing.”

Last week, a spokesman for Balls said he did not work for Brown while at the Smith Institute, but declined to say if he had a security pass.

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