Janet Kidd unique on Harriet Harman list

The controversial donation of £5,000 towards Harriet Harman's costs of running for Labour deputy leader - made by a proxy for the northern property developer David Abrahams - was one of 18 donations received by Harman this year. But according to inquiries made by The First Post, it was the only one where the donor was not well-known to the Harman campaign team.

Yet neither Harman nor any member of her team thought it necessary to query the donation. Harman, who yesterday paid back the £5,000 following the storm of protest over Abrahams's secret donations to Labour, said she had no idea that Janet Kidd was acting on behalf of someone else. She said she accepted the cash because Kidd was a pre-existing Labour donor and was on the electoral register.

However, apart from Kidd, every name appearing the Electoral Commission's register of donations to Harriet Harman is either a recognised individual or trade union or association.

Between them - including Janet Kidd - the various donors gave a total of more than £46,701 which was used to help pay off Harman's debts after her successful deputy leadership campaign.

They include Ken Follett, the multi-millionaire novelist husband of Barbara Follet MP, who ran Harman's campaign. He gave two donations of £5,000 each.

Barbara Follett, like Harriet Harman, is a member of the so-called Sisterhood - a close-knit group of Labour women that also includes Margaret Hodge, who gave two donations totaling £2,200.

Other powerful Labour women who supported Harman's campaign included Nicky Gavron, deputy Mayor of London, who also made two donations totaling £2,200; Vera Baird, MP for Redcar, who gave £1,050, and Baroness Cathy Ashton who gave £1,001. Fiona Mactaggart, MP for Slough, gave £1,050 plus £150 in the form of postage costs.

Donations from trade unions - UCATT and UNITE and the GMB - totalled £9,500 while the Muslim Friends of Labour donated £5,000.

The rest was made up of further donations from individuals. Vinod Popat, who owns MATV, the Midlands-based Asian channel, gave £2,000; Michael V Sternberg, a long-term Labour supporter, gave £5,000; Stefanos Stefanou, a building entrepreneur, gave £1,200; and Anthony Hayes, who is known to be an old trade union friend of Harman's husband Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the TGWU, gave £1,500.

The only mystery name - whose donation of £5,000 was one of the biggest - is that of Janet Kidd who, as it turns out, is David Abrahams's secretary.