Labour accepts £150,000 from online betting company

Labour has accepted a donation of £150,000 from the online betting company Bet 365 in spite of Gordon Brown scrapping plans for super-casinos.

The donation by the betting company owned by Peter Coates was in the quarterly figures on party donations from the Electoral Commission, and led to opposition charges of hypocrisy over stopping the spread of problem betting.

"It's a bit rich to have Gordon Brown taking the moral high ground over super-casinos while accepting this six-figure sum from an online betting company," said a senior Tory source.

The accounts ended in June which was too soon to show a "Brown bounce" in Labour's fundraising. But they confirmed that Tony Blair left Labour £20m in the red, and it will be difficult for the Prime Minister to fund a snap general election campaign in October, without calling on other major individual donors.

Iranian millionaire Mahmoud Khayami was one of the biggest Labour donors, giving £500,000 between April and June, and Muslim Friends of Labour gave £300,000. The party also got £250,000 each from millionaire Jon Aisbitt, financier Ronald Cohen, a friend and confidant of the Prime Minister, and Nigel Doughty, head of a leading private equity company.

A Labour spokesman said: "Our finances remain in a challenging position but the upturn of recent months continues to be reflected in the figures from the Electoral Commission. Donations to the end of June 2007 show an increase of £3.6m on the same stage in 2006."

The Tories, who had net debts of about £9m, were in better financial shape to fight a general election.