Harman did solicit donation

Last Modified: 29 Nov 2007
By: Cathy Newman

They didn't just accept an illegal donation - they solicited it. Channel 4 News reveals how Harriet Harman's Deputy Leadership Campaign team asked for that £5,000.

She's been denying she's done anything wrong for the best part of a week. But today Channel 4 News has learned that Harriet Harman's campaign team did ask for money directly from Janet Kidd, who's since been revealed to have acted on behalf of property developer David Abrahams.

Ms Harman has told the House of Commons that she acted in good faith at all times. At the time of her campaign to become deputy leader of the Labour Party she accepted £5,000 from Ms Kidd even though similar donations were refused by the Prime Minister and Hilary Benn.

Our political correspondent Cathy Newman reports from Westminster:

"One of the big questions about this story that hasn't so far been answered is whether Harriet Harma's campaign team in the donation race actually went looking for donations from third parties, that actually turned out then to be from David Abrahams the controversial property developer.

I called Michael Foster, who managed Harriet Harman's deputy leadership campaign, this morning and I asked him specifically "did you solicit donations from Janet Kidd?" - who is one of the third parties David Abrahams used.

He said to me we sent out loads of letters asking for donations, thousands of them. Which I took as confirmation that yes they did solicit donations from Mrs Kidd.

Now why does this matter? They took £5000 from Janet Kidd, that then turned out to be from David Abrahams. Legally the original source of that donation should have been declared. But Harriet Harman's team said that they didn't know that that money came from Mr Abrahams.

The question is if they actually went looking for that donation, should they then have done better checks? They should have realised that it was from a third party and the ultimate source of the donation was from David Abrahams and that then should have been declared with the commission. That's where they're in a tricky situation. "