The wages of spin is a donation to the party

Tony Blair is under pressure to make special advisers donate part of their salary to help the Labour Party's cash crisis.

The party already has a scheme to force Labour MPs to pay 2 per cent of their salary to the party. Now senior MPs and some ministers are calling on the Prime Minister to impose a similar tithe on spin-doctors and other party-appointed advisers.

The wage bill for such advisers – most of it picked up by the taxpayer – is now £4.2m a year. Donations from them could raise around £336,000 by the next election to supplement the £1.5m contribution expected from MPs.

One senior Labour backbencher, who did not wish to be named, said yesterday: "There is certainly a case for special advisers being asked to pay – and ministers from their topped-up salaries. You could also say senior party officers should too. Why should it only be MPs that pay?"

A minister said he was sympathetic: "These are political appointments. They earn plenty of money. It's absolutely right that they should have to pay – and it'd go some way to sorting out the party finances."

Labour is thought to be around £10m in debt following the 2001 general election, despite the massive donations it received from a number of private businessmen.

The likelihood of future donations being quite so free-flowing has been called into question following a series of high-profile funding scandals.