Rachel Reeves took a £10,000 donation and had a free holiday from Labour mayoral hopeful

Rachel Reeves was last night at the centre of a cronyism row after taking donations and a free holiday from a businessman later selected as a Labour candidate.

The Shadow Chancellor accepted a total of £10,000 from Richard Parker in the year before he launched his surprise bid to stand for her party in a crucial mayoral election.

She told parliamentary authorities that the cash, which followed a £2,000 donation before the 2019 general election, was to support her office. Ms Reeves enjoyed a week-long stay in Mr Parker's second home in Cornwall last summer, just months after he was chosen to be Labour's candidate for West Midlands mayor.

She declared in the register of members' financial interests that the freebie at the end of July was worth £1,400.

While she was there she posted a photo of St George's Cove in Padstow, the town now best known for Rick Stein's seafood restaurants, with the caption: 'Cornwall morning sunshine.'

Last night Ms Reeves, who has vowed to 'clean up cronyism' and accused the Conservatives of being 'rife with conflicts of interest', was under pressure to say if she had any role in the selection of Mr Parker. He was largely unknown in the political world when he was chosen ahead of a Birmingham councillor last April.

Gary Sambrook, Tory MP for Birmingham Northfield, said: 'These revelations raise some questions about how Richard Parker became Labour's candidate for the West Mids in the first place.

'The Shadow Chancellor promised to clean up politics and crack down on cronyism, but here she is taking multiple donations and a free holiday off one of Labour's own candidates.

'Parker and Reeves should come clean about this arrangement.'

Labour declined to say why Mr Parker had made the donations to Ms Reeves but said in a statement: 'Richard Parker is a successful businessman with a proven track record of delivering for the West Midlands, bringing over £1billion of investment to the region. Only a vote for Richard on Thursday can end the Conservative chaos and give the West Midlands a fresh start.'

Mr Parker, 60, has been accused by his election rivals of 'cynically' pretending to live in the area he wants to represent at next week's election.

Although he has long worked in Birmingham, for the council then for consultancy giant PwC, he has only recently started renting a flat in the city but declared it as his home address on nomination forms. His main property is the family home he has owned since 2005, which is in Worcestershire and outside the boundaries of the West Midlands area he hopes to represent.

Latest polling suggests Mr Parker is narrowly ahead of Tory incumbent Andy Street in Thursday's mayoral election.

Redfield & Wilton puts him on 43 per cent and Mr Street on 37, with the Tory closing the gap significantly over the past few weeks.