Levy accuses Brown over Labour funding

Tony Blair's former chief fund raiser, Lord Levy, said today it was "inconceivable" Gordon Brown did not know about the secret loans which led to the "cash for honours" inquiry.

Lord Levy repeated his assertion that Mr Brown's central role in the 2005 general election campaign meant he must have been aware that the party was receiving substantial sums in loans which were not declared to the Electoral Commission.

In an interview with Andrew Marr's AM programme on BBC1, he said it was Mr Brown's job to know how the campaign was being funded.

"The returns to the Electoral Commission are showing quite clearly where all the donations are coming from," he said.

"I never met Gordon once during that time, but if you were the leader - and Gordon was leading the campaign - surely you would be sitting discussing what was going on.

"It would be inconceivable that he really didn't know what was going on."

Mr Brown has always denied that he knew anything of the £14 million lent to the party by wealthy supporters to help bankroll the election campaign - an assertion he repeated last month in the House of Commons.

Scotland Yard launched an inquiry into claims that honours were being corruptly awarded to party backers after it emerged that a number of the people who made loans were nominated peerages.

Lord Levy, who was a central figure in the investigation, was cleared after prosecutors decided that no charges should be brought in relation to any of the allegations.

Lord Levy said he stood by his claim that Mr Blair told him Mr Brown could never beat Conservative Party leader David Cameron in a general election, even though it was denied by Mr Blair's wife, Cherie.

In a weekend interview she said: "Lord Levy doesn't know anything."

Lord Levy told Sky News's Sunday Live programme: "She was very rarely there, if at all, when I had my meetings with Tony.

"For someone to say that when I've been around from 1994, had done the funding for the Labour leader's office, had raised the necessary funds to fight and win three elections, had been the Prime Minster's personal envoy - for someone to say those words seems a little strange to me."

An aide to the Prime Minister dismissed the claim Mr Brown knew of the loans as "complete, unsubstantiated garbage", saying that Lord Levy had produced no evidence to back up his allegations.

"Gordon Brown knew nothing whatsoever about these loans," the aide said.