Today’s donation trouble for Labour: use of a lobby group to hide source of money

The Sunday Times reports:

One of Labour’s biggest donors was able secretly to channel more than £300,000 into the party’s election funds through an Islamic lobby group that hid his identity.

Inquiries by The Sunday Times have established that Imran Khand, a 43-year-old computer entrepreneur, was behind three large donations to the party earlier this year.

But his name was never disclosed to the Electoral Commission, which regulates party funding, because the money was given in the name of Muslim Friends of Labour, a lobby group.

Separately, Harriet Harman’s [error-prone] deputy leadership campaign registered a £5,000 donation from Muslim Friends, when the cash was almost entirely from Mohammad Sarwar, the Labour MP who runs the group.