Mr Straw’s spokesman said he would co-operate fully

A Conservative MP has alleged that Justice Secretary Jack Straw’s local constituency party received an impermissible £2,000 donation in 2005.

Ben Wallace, MP for Lancaster and Wyre, claims the donation from Westminster International Consultants LLP was disallowed under electoral law.

One of the partners had said the firm did not operate in the UK, he added.

The Electoral Commission said a complaint had been made. Mr Straw said he would co-operate fully.

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To be a permissible political donor, a company must be trading in the UK.

Blackburn Constituency Labour Party accepted the donation on 1 April 2005 from Westminster International Consultants and registered it with the Electoral Commission.

On 15 July that year, Mr Straw declared the donation to Parliament’s Register of Members’ Interests.

In his declaration he said it had come from Westminster International Consultants and Siraj Karbhari, a partner in the firm.

The London Evening Standard quotes Mr Karbhari as saying he made the donation in a personal capacity, but may have used the chequebook of one of his companies. If so, he said, he had done it by mistake.

The Electoral Commission says donations can be from individuals if they are UK citizens, which Mr Karbhari is, but must be in the name of the person making them, not of a third party.

Mr Wallace alleges that Dr Yusuf Karbhari, another partner in Westminster International Consultants, said in an interview with the Standard that the firm “didn’t carry out any business in the UK”.

A spokesman for Jack Straw said: “If, as we understand, a complaint has been made to the Electoral Commission, then Blackburn Constituency Labour Party and Jack Straw will of course co-operate fully with any request for information.”
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