£125,000 gift that backfired on Blair

Lakshmi Mittal was known to few outside of business circles until his donation to Labour was made public in 2001.

His £125,000 cash gift was seized on by the Tories when it emerged Tony Blair had written to the Romanian prime minister to help Mr Mittal take over a lucrative steel contract.

The donation was described as "cheap at half the price" by critics who linked it to Mr Mittal's success in taking over the country's newly privatised steel factories.

Britain had also supported him with international loans totalling hundreds of millions of pounds. Although Mr Blair strenuously denied any connection between the Labour donation and his action to support Mr Mittal, he was caught out when he claimed he was only helping out a key "British-based" business. The Tories seized on the fact that Mr Blair was helping a non-British firm owned by a non-British subject (Mr Mittal travels on an Indian passport).