"The depth of secrecy around Labour's pre-election loan-raising activities emerged last night when party officials confirmed that the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, had not been informed, along with the party treasurer, Jack Dromey, of the raising of nearly £14m in loans.
Mr Prescott would have been expected to have known due to his closeness to the prime minister and his membership of the party's business committee. The chancellor, Gordon Brown, was not told either, but due to his Treasury duties he has always kept himself apart from party fundraising...
It also emerged that Labour's then party general secretary, Matt Carter, and the party's fundraiser, Lord Levy, secured permission in principle from the party chairman, Ian McCartney, during the election last spring to seek commercial loans from individuals for the first time.
He agreed, but aides said he was not told the identity of the lenders, or the scale of borrowing, until recently."
What did Mr Blair think he was doing? You can't hide £14 million. Too many people have to know; the cheques have to be put into a bank account; the money will in due course appear in the accounts. The affair was bound to come out eventually. Did he think that no-one would ask about the sources of the money? Or make a connection with the peerages to come? And did he really believe that structuring the donations as "commercial" loans in order to avoid disclosure would be regarded as an honest and transparent approach?
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