Morgan McSweeney ran Labour Together, which provided the blueprint for ousting predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

The Irishman, 46, who will direct Labour’s general election campaign, made no account of £738,492 received from a group of millionaires between June 2017 and April 2020, it is claimed.

The group was fined more than £14,000 for almost 30 offences on his watch, with cash payments not disclosed or incorrectly recorded.

The donors reportedly included Martin Taylor, a hedge fund manager whose Cayman Islands firm invested in the Russian oil giant Gazprom, and Sir Trevor Chinn, a philanthropist and pal of Sir Tony Blair.

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Mr McSweeney initially filed donation reports within 30 days, as required by political parties, records showed.

But funds stopped being reported around December 2017 when he began raising more money, it is said.

In 2020, while still at Labour Together, Mr McSweeney led Sir Keir’s leadership campaign. He then took a full-time role as his chief of staff and later director of campaigns.

The Electoral Commission became aware of the donations the following year when Mr McSweeney’s successor filed a series of late reports and opened an investigation.

Labour Together’s formal response to the watchdog made no mention of Mr McSweeney.

The group said “human error” was to blame and that “it was assumed that donations were being properly reported as indeed they had been so reported up to late 2017 and early 2018”.

The watchdog said this did not amount to a “reasonable excuse” and issued a fine of £14,250.

Mr McSweeney did not respond to repeated requests for comment by a Sunday newspaper.

Labour Together was founded after the 2015 general election defeat.

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