LORD DONOUGHUE, a special adviser to Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, has come under fire for being on the parliamentary committee that vetted the Gambling Bill despite being part-owner of a racehorse and not revealing his son Steve is chief executive of gambling lobbying firm The Gambling Consultancy. Lord D declines to comment on this startling nondisclosure, leaving his son to rally to his defence.

"I can quite categorically state that my father has not received any money from my company or me and that I have never received any benefit or information or any advantage of any kind from or due to my father's position," Steve tells me from South Africa. "I have only ever worked for two casino clients in the last four years, neither project was involved with the change in the law."

Lord Donoughue is not universally popular in establishment circles. He was blackballed from Brooks's Club. And he had business connections to the late disgraced Robert Maxwell who paid him an annual salary of Pounds 436,000.

Donoughue is also not averse to score-settling himself. He shredded the reputation of Wilson's Private Secretary, Marcia Williams, now Lady Falkender, in his memoir published last year, despite her being in a poor state of health.

He did not dignify the Londoner with a response. But when I called his son on his mobile, Donoughue junior requested I email him as "this call is costing me Pounds 3.50 a minute".

Money much better spent on a fruit machine, presumably.

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