Harry Potter author donates a million pounds to Labour Party

London, Sept 20 : JK Rowling, the author of best-selling books about boy wizard Harry Potter, has donated a million pounds to the Labour Party.

According to The Telegraph, the Labour Party is struggling with debts totalling 17.8 million pounds, a majority of which was borrowed to fund the party's most expensive campaign in the run-up to the 2005 general elections.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "I am delighted that JK Rowling, who is one of the world's greatest ever authors, has made such a generous donation."

"I thank her for supporting the Labour Party and our values of social justice and opportunity for all," Brown added.

Rowling's donation is a major boost to the cash-strapped party as the annual Labour conference starts in Manchester.

"I would like to thank JK Rowling for making this generous donation and for helping us in our work to make Britain a fairer and stronger country," said the Labour Party general secretary Ray Collins.

Rowling, who wrote the first of her best-selling books on boy-wizard Harry Potter as an impoverished single mother, stated that her gift to the Labour Party was motivated by their record on child poverty.

"I believe that poor and vulnerable families will fare much better under the Labour Party than they would under a Cameron-led Conservative Party," Rowling said.

She praised Gordon Brown for introducing measures that would save many children from a life lacking in opportunities.

"The Labour government has reversed the long-term trend in child poverty, and is one of the leading EU countries in combating child poverty," said Rowling, and added, "David Cameron's promise of tax perks for the married, on the other hand, is reminiscent of the Conservative government I experienced as a single parent."

She further said, "The Conservatives still believe a childless, dual-income, but married couple is more deserving of a financial pat on the head than those struggling, as I once was, to keep their families afloat in difficult times."

ANI