SIR - The Peter Hain saga leaves everyone wondering just where the Labour Party will end in relation to the financial rules that they are principally responsible for introducing.

Mr Hain declared £82,000 of campaign donations within the time limit, then after the deadline submits a further £103,000. Technically faulty, but at least he declared these late funds before another smart person exposed his team's failings.

Thus it appears Mr Hain spent a total of £185,000 on his Labour Party Deputy Leadership campaign. Or did he actually waste the money as he only came fifth?

Some reports claim he spent more than all his opponents combined - about the same as the PM's annual salary!

His team spent £60,000 in the final week on a full page advert in a national newspaper and a couple of left-wing magazines, plus a mail out to Labour Party members. It seems he was trying to spin the spinners. And they saw through him.

What an embarrassment! Clearly unloved and disrespected by his fellow socialist comrades.

Rumour has it he is known as "Hain the pain", principally self-inflicted.

Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley