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Lisa Nandy denied a croynism row has made Labour’s pledge to clean up politics with “the highest standards of integrity and honesty” look farcical. The Culture Secretary breached the code on public appointments by failing to declare she had received donations from her pick to chair the new football watchdog.

And Ms Nandy insisted she didn’t know David Kogan had given her leadership campaign thousands.

Mr Kogan, a sports rights executive, was announced as the Government’s preferred choice to run the new regulator in April.

But the Labour minister faced claims that the party’s manifesto pledge to clean up politics looks “farcical” in the wake of the latest scandal.

The Culture Secretary told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I don’t think it does, and I’ll tell you why: because as this lengthy and very thorough report has concluded from an independent commissioner, I didn’t know about the donation.

“I was the leadership candidate. I was out on the road, I was doing several hustings, I was doing interviews with you on that process… I wasn’t involved in fundraising for the campaign, and as soon as I found out, I declared it and recused myself, and I complied fully with the process.”

She claimed that the “difference” between Labour and the Conservatives was that when Labour makes mistakes, they “put ourselves through those independent processes” and “respect the outcome”.

She added: “I’ve said ‘hands up, this was not a perfect process. I apologise for them and more importantly I’ll put in place processes to make sure that doesn’t happen again’.”

Whitehall troubleshooter Sir William Shawcross launched an inquiry in June, after Mr Kogan revealed during a confirmation hearing with MPs in May that he had contributed money to Nandy’s 2020 leadership campaign, as well as that of the Prime Minister.

Sir William said Mr Kogan had made two donations of £1,450 each to Nandy’s 2020 campaign, one personally and one through his company.

They were part of total donations worth £33,410 to Labour and the party’s candidates in the five years prior to his appointment, the commissioner said.

The two donations to Nandy were below declaration thresholds set by the Electoral Commission and by Parliament.

But Ms Nandy should have checked whether she had received any donations from Mr Kogan prior to announcing him, Sir William said.

“It need not be true that the donations actually influenced the secretary of state’s decision-making – only that the risk of this perception should have been mitigated by declaration of this financial interest,” he wrote.

“The commissioner finds that she has unknowingly breached the code. She should have carried out that check and taken any necessary consequential action before selecting him,” he added.

Asked whether it was discussed at the interview that Mr Kogan was a Labour donor, she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show: “It was discussed at the interview, it just wasn’t discussed that he donated specifically to me because I didn’t know about that.

“He hadn’t recalled it, but as soon as that was discovered, as I said, as soon as I was given that information, that same day, I’d put that information into the public domain and recuse myself from the process.”