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Labour under pressure to return donation

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON MAY 13. The Labour Party came under pressure today from its own MPs to return the allegedly secret £100,000 donation it took from the controversial media tycoon, Richard Desmond, last year shortly after clearing his takeover of the Express group of newspapers without referring it to the Competition Commission.

Despite official denials of any impropriety, Labour MPs joined the Opposition to question the timing of the donation which has not been officially declared until now either by Mr Desmond or the Labour Party. Both say it would appear in their annual accounts later this year. Perhaps, the most embarrassing attack came from a member of the party's national executive audit committee, Mark Seddon, who said that even his committee was not told about the donation.

``We did not know anything about it and we are the people who are personally responsible for the Labour Party's accounts,'' he said adding that Mr Desmond, widely known as the "porn king'' because of the nature of some of his magazines, was a "totally inappropriate man to take the money from''.

The view was echoed by other MPs, many of whom had opposed Mr Desmond's takeover of the Express group on the ground that he was not a "fit person'' to own family newspapers such as the Daily Express and the Sunday Express. They wanted the deal to be referred to the Competition Commission for a decision and were angry that the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Stephen Byers, did not do so.

Martin O'Neill, chairman of a parliamentary select committee, said he was among those who took the view that Mr Desmon was "not a fit and proper person to run national newspapers.''

"If someone who made money from porn publications came to me and offered to run my constituency campaign, all I can say is that I would have rejected it,'' he said.

Mr Byers, however, defended his decision saying he went strictly by the book.

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