3:23pm Wednesday 22nd October 2008
© Press Association 2011
Gordon Brown has waded in to the row over shadow chancellor George Osborne's discussions with a Russian billionaire over a donation to Tory Party funds.
He has called for the authorities to investigate the matter.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Brown told MPs that he regarded it as a "very serious matter indeed". "I hope that it is investigated by the authorities," he said.
There was no immediate indication from Downing Street which authorities Mr Brown had in mind.
An aide to Mr Brown said: "I think it's for whichever authorities are appropriate to deal with."
The Electoral Commission, meanwhile, reaffirmed its position that it had not seen any evidence that an offence had been committed under party-funding laws.
Mr Osborne is under intense pressure his account of discussions concerning a potential donation from Oleg Deripaska was contradicted by witnesses.
The shadow chancellor refuted claims by banking heir Nathaniel Rothschild on Tuesday that he had sought a £50,000 donation.
But Mr Rothschild, a Tory-supporting university friend of Mr Osborne, maintained on Tuesday night that the Conservatives had been interested in pursuing a donation. He insisted that the subject came up in conversation three times in one day, once on Mr Deripaska's luxury yacht.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that Mr Osborne now needed to provide a full explanation as to what happened. "I think all of us now understand that we do not fund our politics with donations from foreign sources," she told reporters during a visit to a south London youth project.
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