A Bradford MP who acted as campaign manager for Alan Johnson's Labour deputy leadership bid has defended the Health Secretary as another cabinet minister was caught up in the donations row.

Alan Johnson found himself under pressure this weekend after it was claimed he had broken rules covering donations during the contest.

But Mr Johnson rejected suggestions that he broke any rules after it was claimed £3,334 was given by a man on behalf of his brother-in-law, and the Electoral Commission was not told.

The money was given to Mr Johnson by Waseem Siddiqui on behalf of his brother-in-law Ahmed Yar Mohammed, who has denied trying to disguise his campaign donation. Anti-sleaze laws ban donations via a third party.

Bradford South MP and Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe, who ran the failed campaign, said he was "not aware" that anyone on the team had spoken to Mr Siddiqui.

He said: "The donation came in in the usual way. It was checked against the Electoral Register as we were supposed to. This guy was a member of the Labour Party - we saw no reason for sending it back.

Mr Sutcliffe said Mr Siddiqui's cheque had been registered correctly, adding: "It was only in December as we were closing down all the accounts... that we checked it wasn't on the Electoral Commission website.

"They asked us to resubmit. We said we have already submitted but we would resubmit it - and that's where we are on that donation."

And the Bradford MP said copies of every donation were kept and some donations were sent back to people as they were not on the Electoral Register "because clearly that was against the rules".

He added: "We did everything that was required of us. We over-recorded. We actually put down donations that we didn't need to do - it had to be anything over £1,000 and we actually registered those of £1,000.

"We made sure it was transparent and open. And I think we did everything above board. We worked with the electoral commission throughout the campaign."

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman is also being investigated by the Commission for accepting £5,000 from an intermediary acting for property developer David Abrahams.