Mahmoud Khayami an Iranian gives Labour £1m : June 3, 2007

LABOUR has received a £1m donation from an Iranian-born industrialist, providing a massive boost to party coffers.Tony Blair has publicly thanked Mahmoud Khayami for the huge gift. It is one of the most generous ever donations to Labour, eclipsed only by a £2m donation from the steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, and a similar sum given by Lord Sainsbury.It comes at a time when Labour is facing a serious financial crisis, having run up £20m of debt.Several key donors have called in loans in the wake of the “cash for honours” scandal. The party’s leadership elections are costing well over £1m to run, threatening to plunge the party further into the red.Khayami, a Muslim, is a major supporter of the government’s city academy programme. Although he is a prominent Muslim, he is reportedly preparing to sponsor two new city academies which will be run on Christian principles, through a trust headed by Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.Speaking to the Observer newspaper, the prime minister said last night: “I would like to thank Mahmoud Khayami for making such a generous donation to the Labour party and for supporting our values of economic prosperity coupled with social justice.”He praised Khayami, who fled Iran after the fall of the Shah, as a “committed promoter of inter religious understanding”.Khayami has reportedly donated £530,000 to Labour now and pledged the rest of the £1m in the near future.He said he was “proud” to support the Labour party.