Lord Strathclyde

The Conservative leader in the Lords has called for an investigation after the disclosure that a cross-bench peer ennobled by Tony Blair has given money to the Labour Party.

Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Upper House, said "further investigation" was needed after The House Magazine reported that Joel Joffe CBE, who sits in the Lords as an independent, made a £10,000 donation to Labour's general election campaign on March 28 last year.

The study of Electoral Commission data by the magazine revealed that Lord Joffe is the only independent peer listed as having made a donation to any political party in Britain.

"The House Magazine has uncovered the first hard evidence of something we have long suspected, that the Labour Party has been putting sympathisersand now, it seems, even donors, on the crossbenches in the Lords," said Lord Strathclyde. "This deserves further investigation.''

Speaking before he knew of Lord Joffe's donation, the convenor of the crossbench peers, Lord Craig of Radley, said: "If I was shelling out thousands of pounds to one of the parties, I don't think I would be sitting here in this seat. But in practice, I don't think it's an issue."

Lord Joffe was abroad and unavailable for comment, but Lord Craig explained that Lord Joffe had informed him, when he joined the crossbench group, that he was a Labour Party member.

The Electoral Commission's data show that nine Tory peers and three ex-members donated to the Conservative Party last year, five Labour peers donated to the Labour Party and six Lib Dem peers donated to the Liberal Democrats.

All donations of £5000 and above to a national party and of £1000 and above to a local party branch must be disclosed. One of the biggest surprises is how few peers have made a donation since the legislation came into force on February 16 last year.