PM promises speedy funding reform

Mr Brown said new laws would be produced "quickly" and called for all-party support.

Earlier, Tory leader David Cameron said he would back fresh moves to secure agreement on the issue, provided Labour did not "bury its head in the sand" and seek to exclude trades unions from any cap on single donations.

Mr Brown told a Newspaper Society lunch at Westminster: "There will be legislation quickly on this. I hope all parties will support this legislation. I have told the trade unions we have to make changes to the political levy so that is transparent as well. I'm prepared to move forward with this legislation."

The Prime Minister said of the donations row: "It's unacceptable. I'm angry about it, but we have got to deal with it."

Mr Brown said he was not proposing further public funding for political parties "at this stage"

He went on: "I believe we have got to take all the steps necessary to avoid these things happening in the future. It's saddening and makes me angry that these things have happened but I think it's important when a problem emerges that you take action to deal with it."

It is the second time in 48 hours that Mr Brown has sought to use the row over the more than £650,000 proxy donations to Labour from property developer David Abrahams to argue the case for funding reform.

Mr Cameron repeated his offer to rejoin cross-party talks on party funding, as long as Labour tackled the issue of trade union donations. But he queried the behaviour of Labour's chief fundraiser, Jon Mendelsohn, who said he discovered proxy donations from Mr Abrahams in September but failed to tell senior officials or MPs.

Mr Cameron told a Westminster press conference: "We are being asked to believe that Mendelsohn was hired by Gordon Brown, that he found out about these secret donations. He somehow thought it was legal but at the same time was deeply unhappy about it but told nobody. Either this organisation is utterly dysfunctional or we are not being given the whole truth."