Chairman’s ‘benefits’ Union wrote off £72,000 loan made to close Corbyn ally

One of Jeremy Corbyn’s most senior allies “benefited financially” from a £72,000 loan handed to him by the National Union of Mineworkers to buy a property, an investigation has found.

Ian Lavery MP, Labour’s party chairman, received a total of £165,000 from the union he ran over the years, including large redundancy payments. The £72,000 loan given to Mr Lavery to buy a property in the Nineties by The Northumberland Provident and Benevolent fund – a pot of money for sick miners – was written off in full.

The report by the Certification Office for Trade Unions and Employers Associations also questioned a number of “termination payments” from the union totalling £89,887.83. Mr Lavery said: “No member of the union, past or present, has made a complaint about the financial affairs of the union … This report should draw a line under almost two years of allegations and innuendo directed at me and my former colleagues.”