Sir Keir Starmer has again declined to say exactly who is funding his Labour leadership campaign, after coming under pressure to identify his donors.

The front-runner in the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn was grilled by Andrew Neil this evening, before rival Rebecca Long-Bailey faced tough questions on being the ‘continuity Corbyn’ candidate.

Sir Keir insisted that he was sticking by party rules on finances, but his rivals say they have gone further by revealing their financial backers.

Ms Long-Bailey and her allies have called for greater transparency from the shadow Brexit secretary, with shadow minister Jon Trickett suggesting delays in publishing the list were ‘anti-democratic’. Sir Keir criticised ‘this line of attack’ when repeatedly pressed to reveal all of his donors during The BBC’s Andrew Neil Show this evening.

He said: ‘How can you say I’m hiding behind process when it’s the Labour party process’, when pressed on who his five biggest donors are.

He added: ‘I’ve got a compliance team in place who are checking every donation is in accordance with the rules.

‘Once they’ve done that they pass it to the Parliamentary authorities for them to publish it. So two lots have gone up, another lot is with the Parliamentary authorities as of today, I’m following the rules.’

Both of his rivals have published a full list of donations above £1,500.

Sir Keir did say that the biggest donation he has received was £100,000 from fellow lawyer Robert Latham, which was published on Parliament’s register of interests yesterday.

Asked if she thinks Sir Keir is hiding something, Ms Long-Bailey said ‘I hope not’.

‘But I think it’s fair to expect all leadership candidates to be transparent, come under scrutiny, because we will do as leader of the party and indeed as prime minister, so we should be as open as possible to show where our donations come from.

‘It’s important to do that because there’s always an assumption that you don’t get something for nothing in this world and those who donate to your campaign will expect to be repaid in some way in the future.’

Ms Long-Bailey was subjected to tough questions of her own by the veteran journalist, as she declined to revise her 10/10 rating of Mr Corbyn, saying ‘it’s not Top Trumps’.

The shadow business secretary insisted she is not the ‘continuity Corbyn’ candidate she has been widely characterised as, dismissing claims she is the outgoing leader in a different wrapper.

She said: ‘There is no such thing as Corbynism… There is socialism and there are principles in the Labour Party and if I continue them then I am proud to do that but I am certainly not a continuation of Jeremy Corbyn.’

She added: ‘It’s not the same old chocolate Corbyn bar’, before being grilled on the anti-Semitism that has blighted the Labour Party.

Ms Long-Bailey admitted regretting not directly challenging a member at a recent event in Liverpool who claimed ‘members of the Israeli lobby’ – including Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge – had the greatest responsibility for preventing Mr Corbyn from becoming prime minister.

She again trumpeted a bold ‘Green New Deal’ to deal with the climate crisis but faced questions on the cost of reaching net zero carbon by 2030.

Ms Long-Bailey also pushed back on suggestions that she did not have the experience to be prime minister and admitted she should have challenged an anti-Semitic member at a recent event in Liverpool.

Sir Keir continued to decline directly criticising Mr Corbyn, who led Labour to its worst general election defeat since 1935 but is still revered by some members who will choose the next leader.

And Sir Keir said it was “utter nonsense” that he had undermined Mr Corbyn by not towing the leader’s line when he said he would campaign to remain in any further EU referendum.

The final leadership contender, Lisa Nandy, subjected herself to Mr Neil’s scrutiny in January and was widely praised for her performance.

Members and supporters began receiving ballots on February 24.

Voting closes two days before the new leader is announced on April 4.

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