Labour last year begged a dozen private backers - who lent the party £14m in 2005 - to delay repayments until 2015.

Most agreed; including Chai Patel, Richard Caring, Rod Aldridge and Barry Townsley. Two others wrote off their loans altogether (Sir Gulam Noon and Lord Sainsbury).

Two refused to play ball: Andrew Rosenfeld (who was owed £1m) and Gordon Crawford (£500,000).

But I’m told that Rosenfeld has now got most of his money back. And so has Crawford. This is a sliver of good news for Labour - although the party now has a new problem; the drying up of donations or loans from private individuals.

Sam Coates pointed out a while back that some of Labour’s biggest private donors are dead people.

July 2, 2009 12:28pm in Labour | Comment