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Cash for Peerages Row DeepensUltimately I believe it will be the cash for peerages scandal that Blair will be decried for – in all ways it is much more serious than the current Prescott or Clarke debacles.Martin Frost
2006-05-02 Police
hold honours interviews
Sky News 2006-05-02
Detectives in the "cash for honours" inquiry have interviewed a number of people under caution, Scotland Yard has said. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said all the interviews had been arranged by appointment and that none of the people concerned had been arrested. No details were being released about the people who had been questioned. However, Downing Street said Tony Blair was not among them. Police began probing allegations that the Labour Party offered peerages in return for favours, including secret loans. The party has strenuously denied any wrongdoing. The inquiry has since been widened to cover other parties as well. Headteacher and former government adviser Des Smith was arrested and bailed last month following newspaper claims and has already been questioned by police. The Sunday Times suggested he had told potential donors to the city academy scheme they could expect an honour in return for their help. He has denied the accusations. It was disclosed last week that police are due to meet members of a Commons committee planning their own investigation into the affair to discuss whether they can press ahead with their public hearings. The Public Administration Committee agreed to postpone its hearings to prevent any future criminal case being prejudiced. If it continues as planned on May 15, it is expected to hear from Mr Blair's personal fundraiser, Lord Levy. He reportedly recruited wealthy businessmen to secretly lend the Labour Party millions of pounds to bankroll its General Election campaign. 'Cash for honours' scandal hurts Blair's reputation Cash for peerages probe widened Rector backs peerage claim Cameron Mackintosh refused to give loan for a peerage See also British Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing growing criticism over a series of secret loans made to the Labour party during the last general election. At least four individuals each made loans worth more than $1 million Cdn, and were later included on a list of names being recommended for a peerage. The affair is hurting Blair politically. Newspapers have started to openly ask for his resignation and half of Britons polled in a recent survey said he should leave within a year. "Selling" titles has been illegal since 1925, when it was discovered that Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George and his cronies even had a price list for such honours. London's Metropolitan Police Service says it has received three complaints against Blair's Labour party and is investigating the matter, which has been dubbed the "cash for honours" scandal. The allegations say people intending to make large donations to the party during last year's general election campaign were instead asked to make loans. Donations must be disclosed under laws governing British politics; loans do not. While Blair has acknowledged the loans were made, he denies there was any link between them and recommendations about who should be granted a seat in the British House of Lords. Dr. Chai Patel was one of the lenders whose name was taken off the House of Lords list because of his links to the Labour party. "I voluntarily went to the party to give money because I happen to believe in the values and the policies of the party," said Patel, who loaned the equivalent of $3 million Cdn. "At no time has there been a explicit or implicit conversation about any form of reward associated with this." Blair has already announced he will not run in the next election, but insists he alone will decide when to step down. Police have extended their "cash for peerages" probe to look into loans to political parties as far back as 2001. The probe was launched amid claims Labour had broken the law preventing the sale of honours, ahead of last year's election. It has since been widened to cover the activities of other parties. And the Electoral Commission confirmed the inquiry would stretch back five years - potentially covering loans to the Tories under Iain Duncan Smith. The Electoral Commission said the inquiry was "not specifically limited to current loans". All accounts of the last five years are being looked at. Last week government adviser Des Smith was arrested as part of the probe. Mr Smith, a headteacher, was subsequently bailed and will, according to his solicitor, deny allegations against him. The arrest followed allegations in a Sunday newspaper that he told an undercover reporter posing as the PR of a potential donor that honours could be forthcoming in return for funding for the government's flagship city academies programme. Levy-headed body Mr Smith later quit his post with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust which helps the government recruit education sponsors. Set up in September 2005, its president is Lord Levy, Tony Blair's chief political fundraiser and close friend. Downing Street has said it is "nonsense to suggest that honours are awarded for giving money to an academy". The cash-for-honours inquiry was originally launched in response to a complaint by Scottish and Welsh nationalist MPs. The investigation is being led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who has said he is prepared to widen the investigation to consider more general allegations of corruption. It followed reports that the House of Lords Appointments Commission had blocked the appointment of four of Prime Minister Tony Blair's nominations for peerages - all wealthy businessmen who had made loans to Labour. None was on the list of new working life peers when it was published on Monday. One Tory nominee - who had loaned the party £2m - also missed out on a seat in the upper house. Mr Yates has already told MPs that he is prepared to widen the investigation to consider more general allegations of corruption. Apr 29 2006 Martin
Shipton, Western Mail
Peter Law was offered a peerage in return for not standing in last
year's general election, a close friend insisted last night. And that
offer to the late Independent MP for Blaenau Gwent was made with the
full knowledge of 10 Downing Street, says the Rev Geoff Waggett, the
Rector of Ebbw Vale. The peerage allegation, which has been denied
vehemently by the Labour Party, was first made during a TV interview on
Thursday evening by the widow of Mr Law, who died earlier this week
from a brain tumour.Mr Law had rejected all appeals from Labour not to stand and went on to win Labour's safest seat in Wales with a majority of more than 9,000. Yesterday Mr Waggett backed Trish Law's statement on BBC Wales' Dragon's Eye programme, saying he had been told of the approach made to her late husband. Mr Waggett said, "I am very angry that the Labour Party is denying that Peter was offered a peerage. I am not prepared to stand by and hear Peter called a liar. He was a man of the utmost integrity. "He told me he had been offered a peerage by a senior Labour figure in return for not standing in the general election. Peter told me this in person around the time he confirmed he would be standing." Mr Waggett said he had been told by Mr Law that the party figure had said the offer was being made with the full knowledge of 10 Downing Street. The rector said he had earlier been told by another Labour figure that Mr Law would be offered the post of Deputy Presiding Officer at the National Assembly in return for standing down - a suggestion previously reported. Plaid Cymru's parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd says Mr Law told him about the offer of a peerage in the Commons tearoom and yesterday the Assembly's Deputy Presiding Officer John Marek said Mr Law had told him the same story. The Conservatives' Shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan MP called on the Prime Minister to conduct a "full and independent investigation" into the claims. The leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the National Assembly, Nick Bourne AM, has also called on the First Minister to refer the allegations to the committee which is already looking into the issue of loans for peerages. In a letter to the Prime Minister, separate to the one she sent to Mr Hain, Mrs Gillan says, "Following the sad death of our colleague Peter Law AM MP, the revelation by his widow on BBC Wales Dragon's Eye last night that he was offered a peerage not to stand against the Labour Party produced an immediate Labour Party denial. "This, of course, calls into question Mrs Law's veracity at a deeply sensitive time, which I regret. "In the light of such an inordinately swift response could you please tell me when you were first notified about the allegation and what your response was to it? "Given the limited time scale between the interview and the denial, which 'senior Labour politicians' were contacted last night about the allegation, which Government Minister authorised the denial, and what inquiries did he or she make before issuing the rebuttal? "Since an offence may have been committed under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925, I would like your assurance that a full and independent investigation will be conducted into this matter without delay." Under the Act, it is a criminal offence to offer "any gift, money or valuable consideration" as an inducement for procuring an honour. It is suggested that in this case, Mr Law's agreement not to stand for Parliament would have been a "valuable consideration". Mr Law's funeral takes place at 10am next Thursday at Christ Church, Ebbw Vale. Tim Walker and Richard
Eden: 30/04/2006
Sir Cameron Mackintosh was offered a seat in the House of Lords in return for a loan to the Labour Party. The West End theatre owner and impresario has told friends he was approached before the last general election but turned down the offer. It is the latest revelation in the "cash for honours" affair that has sparked the first police investigation in more than 70 years into whether peerages have been sold and which has threatened to drag some of Tony Blair's closest associates into the scandal. "Cameron understood that a peerage was on offer," said a friend of the producer of such hit musicals as Les Misérables and Mary Poppins. "He is a man of integrity and said that he wasn't interested, and, in the light of what's happened since, he is extremely pleased that he did so." Sir Cameron, who has a fortune estimated at £400 million, was among those who helped to bankroll Labour's 1997 general election campaign. He had, however, apparently never had any contact with Lord Levy, Mr Blair's chief fund-raiser, whose spokesman said yesterday that the peer had "no recollection of ever having met" Sir Cameron. The 59-year-old impresario is the first donor to indicate that he was offered an honour in return for a "loan" to the party. Last month, Dr Chai Patel, who runs the Priory clinics, disclosed that the party had exploited a loophole in the rules which meant that huge loans could be kept secret even though donations of £5,000 or more had to be made public. Detectives investigating the loans for peerages allegations have contacted Dr Patel and Sir David Garrard, a property developer, whose peerage nominations were blocked by the Lords Appointments Commission. Although knighted by John Major's Conservative government, Sir Cameron was feted by the Blairs. He subsequently revised his opinion, however, and said in 2003: "I voted Labour because I felt it was time for a change, but I must confess I feel disillusioned. The Government seems more interested in Baghdad than in London." Scotland Yard launched an investigation into the "cash for honours" affair under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925, which makes the sale of honours illegal. A spokesman for Sir Cameron declined to comment. The crisis was ignited when Jack Dromey, the Labour Party treasurer, admitted that he had been unaware that the party obtained £14 million of loans from wealthy individuals in the run-up to last year's election. See also Ethos of Corruption Arthur Maundy Gregory: A Summary Victor Grayson Sidney Reilly Vernon Kell Basil Thompson Zinoviev Letter Crime Pays Lords Kaput Reforming the Lords Lord Levy - schmoozing Labour into trouble Sleaze and political corruption Bankrolling New Labour David Mills Berlusconi & Blair |
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