Gordon Brown cleans out the stables

The question is whether Harriet Harman can survive, says our Westminster insider

Harriet Harman has been left swinging in the wind. It took four attempts to get Gordon Brown at his Downing Street press conference today to say he had confidence in the Labour Party chair after she admitted taking money from a stooge of the property developer David Abrahams.

She issued a statement denying she knew when she accepted £5,000 for her deputy leadership campaign that Janet Kidd was Abrahams's secretary and that he was behind the donation.

But Hilary Benn was told by Baroness Jay that Janet Kidd was offering him £5,000 on behalf of Abrahams for his deputy leadership campaign and he refused. He accepted £5,000, but only direct from Abrahams.

Brown's team also refused money from Mrs Kidd. Why did no-one warn Harriet Harman? Her campaign manager was Joan Ruddock MP, now a minister, and regarded as totally

beyond reproach. Why did she not smell a rat?

Brown has tried to limit the damage to himself by cleaning out the stables. The party general secretary, Peter Watt, has resigned. Brown has promised to repay the money given to the Labour Party and asked Lord 'Larry' Whitty, a former general secretary, to carry out an internal party investigation.

But questions remain unanswered. Has all the money been accounted for? So far, we know that four associates of Abrahams - Labour's 'Friends in the North' - donated amounts totalling £601,975. Labour officials are checking but they think that is all that can be traced back to Abrahams.

Peter Watt was aware of the Abraham subterfuge which is why he resigned. Brown says the first he knew of it all was when the story broke on Saturday night. The question people are now asking is why did nobody tell the Prime Minister?