Contributors to political parties should be required to register their interests, a leading Tory donor has said.

Giving evidence to the Electoral Commission Stuart Wheeler argued that such a move would allay public fears about donors' influence on party policy.

"I think something like a register of interests would go a long way to dealing with that problem," he said.

Wheeler, who was one of the first Tory donors to call for Iain Duncan Smith to resign as party leader, argued that such a move should only cover donations of more than £50,000 or £100,000.

However, he conceded that major donors like himself could expect greater access to the party leadership.

"Of course you have got much better access but that is just life. There is nothing wrong with that," he added.

But Wheeler argued against capping donation levels.

"To stop people doing what they want to do with their own money is an extraordinary interference with their personal liberty," he said.

"By taking that right away you are interfering and meddling in business which isn't anybody's but the private individual's."

Labour

Also giving evidence was the deputy general secretary of the Labour Party, Chris Lennie, who insisted that the government would oppose any proposed reforms that threatened their historical link with the trade unions.

"They are constitutionally written into the party rules at all levels," he said.

"Anything that moves in the Labour Party has the unions in and amongst it."

While he opposed "wholesale state funding", Lennie recognised the need for greater state support for political parties, taking such forms as education for candidates for public office, the costs of compliance with new legislation, and the costs involved in communicating with party members.

In addition, the governing party could receive state funding in a system similar to the "Short" money currently available to opposition parties, he added.