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BBC School Report
Tony Blair has been in a precarious position since 2006 when he became the first serving British PM to be questioned by police in a criminal investigation. This investigation was sparked by complaints from Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil that Labour had been receiving secret loans. Many of the men who gave these loans in turn received peerages or other honours.
Tony Blair’s spokesperson said “The honours were not for public service but expressly party peerages given for party service.”
The men who lent money to Labour and were then nominated for peerages are:
- Barry Townsley, a stockbroker who has also donated money towards a city academy school
- Sir David Garrard, a property developer who also donated money to a city academy
- Dr Chai Patel, chief executive of Priory Clinics
- Sir Gulam Noon, who says he was advised to keep a £250,000 loan secret and that he was blocked from joining the House of Lords once the loan, came to the attention of the Lords appointment commission.
Tony Blair’s spokesperson emphasized that holding the interview on the same day that Lord Stevens released the report on Princess Diana’s death was not a deliberate plan to “bury bad news.”
The Prime minister was questioned as a witness and not under caution, he is therefore not being treated as a suspect.
90 people had been interviewed for the investigation, among those questioned were; Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, former party chairman Ian McCartney, former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn, ex-science minister Lord Sainsbury, and ex-Tory leader Michael Howard.
One man who has been connected a lot with the case is Lord Levy who was arrested and questioned in July 2006 and arrested on police bail. He was again arrested in January 2007 on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
 
In March 2007 the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith passed a ban on the BBC on reporting an e-mail about the cash for peerages scandal. The ban was lifted so that the BBC can report that Downing Street aide Ruth Turner sent an e-mail to Tony Blair’s Head of staff Jonathan Powell involving Labour’s Chief Fundraiser Lord Levy.
By Nadine S2Y
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