The elusive Mr Abrahams and me

Last Modified: 29 Nov 2007
By: Nick Martin

We've spent the last three days in the north east of England on the trail of secretive Labour party donor David Abrahams.

He's done a good job of attracting attention to himself in recent days but in general he's avoiding our cameras.

Of course, that's his choice and the truth is we don't know if he's even in his native Newcastle - we've been acting on rumours and tips off for most of last few days.

It's a part of the world I know well having spent five years here as a newspaper journalist and my contacts book from that time has certainly been dusted off and worked through in our attempts to bring clarity to a story which is anything but clear.

John Burton provided an illuminating assessment of Mr Abrahams. He said he'd never suspected that the property developer was a man of wealthy means. 'He always looked a bit scruffy,' he told me.

David Abrahams is a well know figure in this part of the world. He served as a Labour councillor in Tyne and Wear and his late father, Bennie Abrahams, was Lord Mayor of Newcastle.

One prominent businessman told me that David had aspirations to follow his father into politics but never really achieved it.

Since then, I was told, Mr Abrahams has avoided public attention "living very much under the radar" following his business interests in property developing.

Until this week, of course.

We've been building up a picture of Mr Abrahams and he's certainly a busy man. He is a director of six property companies in Newcastle and has a home in Gosforth, a suburb of Newcastle, and a flat in North London.

I've spent most of the day outside his property in Newcastle - a new build house tightly squeezed between large old red brick semi detached homes - it's fair to say it looks out of place.

We know he's a fan of Labour - and has donated more than £580,000 to the party albeit through other people.

Mr Abrahams was in the front row when Tony Blair made a speech to local Labour party figures in his former Sedgefield constituency in June announcing his decision to stand down and quit Parliament.

I spoke to John Burton, Tony Blair's former constituency agent on Channel 4 News on Tuesday night.

Mr Burton provided an illuminating assessment of Mr Abrahams. He said he'd never suspected that the property developer was a man of wealthy means. "He always looked a bit scruffy," he told me.

Mr Abrahams sought the vote himself back in the 1990s.

He was selected to stand as a parliamentary candidate for Labour in Richmond, North Yorkshire, against William Hague in 1992 but was deselected after a grueling series of rows with the local Labour party over his personal life and business interests.

There were claims that he had presented himself as a married man with a young son when, in fact, he was single.

He blamed the row on a smear campaign.

We've been trying to find the phantom wife and son - I've pressed more buzzers and knocked on more doors following this line of enquiry but we have so far been unable to get their side of the story.

We'll keep trying.

The knocking on doors continued on Wednesday. This time the home of Janet Dunn.

On Tuesday night she was named as an intermediary donor to the Labour party - on her doorstep she denied knowledge and said she was a conservative supporter and knew nothing of why her name had cropped up in all of this.

The story changed this morning. I spoke to her lawyer on the driveway of the Dunn residence. He handed me a revised statement which said: "following a review of my records a cheque drawn on my account in the sum of £25,000 was given to the Labour party in January 2003".

Mrs Dunn said she was willing to assist in any subsequent investigation. It's still not clear why or how she couldn't remember a cheque of such a sum.

We are staying in Newcastle for the time being and will be out and about again in the morning to see what information can be gathered.

And if you know anything that we might find interesting pop it on an email to news@channel4.com