BRITAIN:British health secretary Alan Johnson has insisted he was "100 per cent honest" and fulfilled his legal obligations after becoming the latest Labour minister to become embroiled in allegations about non-disclosure and "proxy" donations.
Mr Johnson spoke out strongly after Sunday newspaper reports that student Waseem Siddiqui was asked to write a cheque on behalf of his brother, a local party official, contributing £3,334 (€4,500) towards the minister's failed campaign to become Labour's deputy leader last summer.
Mr Johnson also confirmed this was one of four donations he subsequently learned last December had not been included on the website of the electoral commission. However, the minister and his campaign manager, sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe, said all donations had been properly declared last May and within the required 60 days - while raising the possibility that their non-appearance on the watchdog's website was the result of "problems at their [ the electoral commission's] end".
Yesterday's reports prompted suggestions of a deepening "donations crisis" for the prime minister, Gordon Brown, just days after Peter Hain was forced to quit the cabinet after the commission asked police to investigate his late disclosure of £103,000 (€138,000) in donations supporting his bid to replace former deputy leader John Prescott.
Mr Johnson's subsequent bullish statement appeared to bolster the confidence of ministerial colleagues that they were not witnessing a rerun of the Hain case, with Mr Hain's replacement as work and pensions secretary, James Purnell, suggesting some media reports of Mr Johnson's embarrassment seemed "a bit out of proportion".
However, the earlier weekend assertion by defence and Scottish secretary Des Browne that there would be no further cabinet-level resignations resulting from inquiries into personal and party donations appeared premature. Several newspapers reported yesterday that Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman is likely to be interviewed by police about a donation made to her campaign by a proxy for millionaire property developer David Abrahams.
The Scottish National Party, meanwhile, is maintaining pressure on Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, who says she expects to be cleared by the commission of any "intentional wrongdoing" over the acceptance of a donation from a Jersey-based businessman to her leadership campaign in breach of the rules barring contributions from people not on the electoral register.
Mr Johnson told Sky News his campaign team "registered everything in accordance with the laws to the best of our knowledge" and said: "We are absolutely clear now from talking to the electoral commission that everything we have done was what was required of us."
He said everything had been "above board" and that there had been "absolutely no impropriety" in the matter of Mr Siddiqui's donation. "We did what the law required us to do. We checked that he is on the electoral role, we checked that he is registered to vote in this country . . . We submitted his donation to the parliamentary register, it has been there since May 9th. We submitted it to the electoral commission. We noticed back end of last year it was not appearing on the commission's website, along with three other contributions, so we met with the electoral commission. They advised us to resubmit them all again, which we did."