BLACKBURN MP Jack Straw insists he has done nothing wrong over a £3,000 payment from an energy firm towards a celebratory dinner.

Conservative MP Ben Wallace for the Wyre has asked the Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to look into the payment, which was not recorded in registers of MPs’ interests or donations to parties.

The £3,000 from Texas-based Canatxx Ventures - which wants to build a £300million gas storage facility under the Wyre countryside - helped pay for Mr Straw’s dinner at Ewood Park to celebrate 25 years as Blackburn MP in 2004.

At the time of Mr Straw’s party Canatxx was making its first bid for the plans, which were eventually rejected in 2007. But Mr Wallace has questioned the payment to Mr Straw after Canatxx unveiled a fresh proposal.

A spokesman for Mr Straw said the Blackburn MP voluntarily informed the Commons about the company’s assistance in a written response to a parliamentary question more than two years ago.

The spokesman said the party was not a fundraising event, and the then Foreign Secretary had to dip into his own pocket to cover a loss from the evening.

Mr Straw’s spokesman said: “Mr Straw has never had any involvement with Canatxx’s business whatsoever.

“Not before the event referred to, during it or after it.

”The information about Canatxx’s sponsorship of the event in 2004 is public and has been for two and half years.

”Issues about the interpretation of the rules regarding the registration of such sponsorship are a matter for the Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary commissioner for standards.

”Mr Straw understands that Ben Wallace MP has referred this matter to the parliamentary commissioner. He has not been contacted about this by Mr Wallace.

”If this is the case, any requests from the parliamentary commissioner for any records relating to this event will of course be made available by Blackburn Labour Party and Mr Straw.”

Mr Wallace said there were questions to be asked.

He said: “How many Labour councillors were there? Were they on the same table as the Canatxx representative?”

“At the very least, Mr Straw benefited from the donation and he should have declared it in the register of interests and either he or the constituency Labour Party should have declared it to the Electoral Commission.

”The reason I have raised the issue now is that we have got some new evidence about the value of the donation, and this company has now re-submitted its application.”