Canary Wharf Group gave more than £120,000 to the Labour party to help to gain access to ministers and key officials during a lobbying campaign for a new rail link. Sunday Times

It gave Labour the funds as part of its campaign for the £16bn Crossrail scheme to link the City of London and the Isle of Dogs to Heathrow. The last donation, of £35,000, was made on September 29 this year, six days before Gordon Brown gave the project the go-ahead.

Company reports say the political donations made over four-years were used for the 'promotion' of Crossrail.

Between October 2003 and September this year Canary Wharf Group and its subsidiary company gave £122,500 to the Labour party. All the donations were declared to the Electoral Commission and company reports say the gifts reflected its commitment to the 'promotion of Crossrail and the local community'.

The DfT said it had met a wide range of stakeholders and relevant business groups: 'All decisions on Crossrail were, and are, taken on purely objective grounds.'