Labour today published a list of 12 wealthy individuals who lent a total of nearly £14 million to the party at the time of last year’s general election.

In total, the individual donors provided the vast majority of Labour’s £17.5 million spending on the 2005 election campaign.

Although lending money to political parties is not illegal, the revelations have led to sleaze allegations after it emerged that several of the wealthy lenders had been nominated for peerages shortly afterwards, but Labour officials had failed to declare the loans to the Lords Appointments Commission.

The growing furore centres on Mr Blair's personal decision to bypass Labour’s fundraising committee and accept cash advances from wealthy backers on flexible repayment terms.

New names to emerge in the list issued today included Rod Aldridge (£1 million), the executive chairman of Capita whose company has millions of pounds of contracts with the Department of Education.

Richard Caring (£2m), a fashion retailer; Gordon Crawford (£500,000), a financial software tycoon; Professor Sir Christopher Evans (£1m), a biotechnology entrepreneur; Nigel Morris (£1m), co-founder of Capital One financial services; Andrew Rosenfeld (£1m), a property tycoon; and Derek Tullett (£400,000), a stockbroker, were also named for the first time as having given substantial loans.

Among the Labour lenders whose names which are already in the public domain were Sir Gulam Noon (£250,000), the curry entrepreneur, and Lord Sainsbury of Turville, the Science Minister, who admitted last night that he had lent his party £2 million in addition to his sizeable donations.

Sir Gulam last night spoke of his bitterness at being abandoned by the Labour Party, as the Lords Appointments Commission ended his hopes of becoming a peer.

The Times has learnt that Mr Blair refused twice in the last ten days to confirm that the millionaire had made "soft" loans to Labour.

The names of property developer Sir David Garrard, who lent the party £2.3 million, Dr Chai Patel (£1.5m) and Barry Townsley (£1m) have also previously been made public after the Lords commission which vets nominations for peerages raised concerns about their undeclared financial links to the Labour party.

The wealthy donors lent Labour a total of £13,950,000. Their names had been kept secret because electoral laws do not require loans taken out on a commercial basis to be disclosed, unlike donations.

The list was released on the eve of a meeting of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee, at which treasurer Jack Dromey will detail the preliminary findings of his inquiry into the loans, which he says were kept secret from him and other elected party officials.

It came as Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, announced that he would fast-track legislation to make secret political loans illegal, by including it in the Electoral Administration Bill now going through Parliament, and likely to become law by the summer. He said that he was consulting on whether reporting loans to political parties should be made retrospective.

Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords, attacked the way the issue had been handled by Tony Blair. "This is a deeply dispiriting day and the Prime Minister should hang his head in shame," he said.

The publication of the list, and the measures announced by the Lord Chancellor, appear intended to end the trickle of damaging revelations over the affair which have tarnished Labour with allegations of sleaze and pushed Mr Blair's popularity to an all-time low.

Lord Falconer dismissed suggestions that the unfolding scandal should cause the Prime Minister to hasten his departure from Downing Street, saying: "That is trying to associate two things that don't need to be associated."

Asked whether the furore was the result of No 10's tight control of the apparatus of the Labour machine he replied: "No, no, no. The problem is not a group of people in 10 Downing Street, the problem is how you fund political parties. It's a very difficult issue."

The Lord Chancellor said that it had been a "mistake" that an Act passed in 2000, designed to prevent allegations of sleaze by insisting that donors to political parties cannot remain anonymous, did not oblige parties to disclose commercial lenders.

Sir Hayden Phillips, a former Whitehall Permanent Secretary, today said that he had been asked to lead a review of party political financing. State funding of political parties is central to Sir Hayden's review, which will report by the end of the year.

He said that he would "in particular" consider a Conservative proposal to cap individual donations at £50,000 and introduce state funding to make up the shortfall. Such a policy, which would entail using taxpayers' money to fund party political activities, is likely to be met with fierce resistance.

Sir Gulam, who has given more than £200,000 in donations, was persuaded by Labour to give the £250,000 as a loan to help the party’s £17 million election campaign.

A Labour source said: "Had Gulam Noon’s loan been made known to the commission, his name would still be on the list of peers. He is a self-made man. He has been badly let down as he is exactly the sort of person who should be in the Lords."

David Cameron, the Tory leader, is said to support a plan to reduce the total number of MPs by 10 per cent in order to lessen the extra burden on the taxpayer caused by the introduction of state funding. He would also like the amount of money parties can spend in a general election campaign cut from £20 million to £15 million.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, said that he supported the plan and called for "transparency, transparency, transparency". He told the BBC that the Liberal Democrats received loans from three people in the run-up to the General Election, all of whose names have been declared.

The 12 donors

Sir David Garrard (£2.3 million)

Richard Caring (£2m)

Lord (David) Sainsbury (£2m)

Dr Chai Patel (£1.5m)

Rod Aldridge (£1m)

Professor Sir Christopher Evans (£1m)

Nigel Morris (£1m)

Andrew Rosenfeld (£1m)

Barry Townsley (£1m)

Gordon Crawford (£500,000)

Derek Tullett (£400,000)

Sir Gulam Noon (£250,000)

Total: £13,950,000

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