What is the secret donor row about?

The row is over 19 big donations made by the businessman David Abrahams but channelled secretly through other people: a solicitor, builder, secretary and the wife of a business associate. The donations, together worth £600,000, were registered in their names, concealing the fact that Mr Abrahams was the source. Labour changed the law in 2000 to require that all donations of more than £5,000 are registered. In order to stop foreign donations, the law said that donations via middlemen must also be declared fully.

Who is Mr Abrahams and why did he donate secretly?

He is a wealthy property developer from the North East who long links to the Labour Party: his father Bennie, who had a property business, was a Lord Mayor of Newcastle and he himself was briefly a Labour parliamentary candidate before being deselected in 1991. David Abrahams says that he simply wanted to help Labour but did not want the negative publicity attracted by many political donors. Critics say that as a developer, there are potential advantages in having an influence with Labour councils and the Government.

Q&A: secret donor scandal

Our Political Correspondent analyses the origins of the secret donor sleaze row and its potential implications

• Timeline: Labour's secret donor row

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Background

• A walking paradox who gave £600,000

• Brown is made to play the fool in stage farce

• Jack Dromey declares he is victim of concealment

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• Timeline: Labour's secret donor row

Who are the key Labour players in this row?

Mr Abrahams's third-party donations began in 2003, when Tony Blair was Prime Minister and Labour leader. The scale and frequency of donations increased after June, when Gordon Brown replaced him. Peter Watt quit as the party’s general secretary after admitting that he knew of the donations via middlemen.

Hilary Benn, one of the candidates for Labour deputy leader after Mr Blair and John Prescott stepped down, rejected a donation from one of Mr Abrahams’s proxies, although he then asked for, and accepted, a donation in Mr Abrahams’s name. The campaign team of Harriet Harman, the party chairman, approached Labour donors for money and took a £5,000 cheque from Janet Kidd, one of Mr Abrahams’s proxies.

Whose careers does it threaten?

Harriet Harman looks exposed, given that Hilary Benn’s team handled the issue of proxy donations more shrewdly, but she has support from Mr Brown and his allies. Any minister who turns out to have known that David Abrahams was behind the secret donations is at risk from the series of inquiries under way. Within the Labour party Jon Mendelsohn, the election fundraiser, also knew of the arrangement although claims he was unhappy and planned to change it.

How damaging is this to Gordon Brown?

Very. His pledge to usher in a new kind of politics and to rebuild voters’ trust has taken a battering. It is too bad that this arrangement began when Tony Blair was leader. Nor has he been given much credit for his tough response: the resignation of the party’s top official, repayment of the £600,000 and a series of inquiries. Gordon Brown and other Labour politicians have insisted they did not know of the illegal donations but cannot prove they did not. The electorate rarely gives politicians the benefit of the doubt.

How is Jon Mendelsohn, Labour's fund-raiser, involved?

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