A Labour donor who gave £500,000 to the party “may have had” a pass giving him access to Downing Street immediately after the election, a Cabinet minister has admitted.

Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, insisted that it wasn’t “unusual” that Lord Waheed Alli, a Labour peer and millionaire TV producer, was given a security pass.

“I believe he may have had one. I don’t think he’s got one anymore and I don’t think it’s unusual for people to have passes to attend political meetings if they need to do so,” he told Sky News.

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He has given around £500,000 to Labour since 2020, including personally donating £16,200 of “work clothing” and £2,485 of “glasses” to Sir Keir Starmer and donating £20,000 to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.

Lord Alli has also made donations to Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.

The multimillionaire, who became the youngest and first openly gay appointed peer in history when elevated to the Lords by Tony Blair at the age of 34 in 1998, was appointed as Labour’s new Chair of General Election Fundraising in 2022.

He is known as the brains behind Channel 4’s Big Breakfast and worldwide hit reality series Survivor and was once described as the person Mr Blair would call on his mobile phone when he wanted to know what young people thought.