| Author | Message | | ktholcombe | | Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:15 pm Post subject: |
| Levy: I won't be cash-for-honours fall guy
By Melissa Kite and Julie Henry
(Filed: 16/04/2006)
Tony Blair's chief fund-raiser, Lord Levy, has said he will not be the "fall guy" for the Prime Minister over the cash-for-honours affair.
The Labour peer is to be questioned by detectives about his role in brokering £14 million worth of loans to the Labour Party - four of which were from lenders later nominated for peerages.
Lord Levy was against secret loans.
Sources close to Lord Levy said he would tell police that he was against getting wealthy backers to offer secret loans instead of publicly declared donations - but was urged to do so by Mr Blair to save the party from bankruptcy.
It is understood that he will be questioned within the next three weeks by Scotland Yard's Specialist Crime Directorate.
If Lord Levy - nicknamed Lord Cashpoint after raising £40 million for Labour over the past decade - tells police that he was simply acting under orders, it makes it far more likely that police will go on to question the Prime Minister.
Further signs that the inquiry is getting closer to Mr Blair's inner circle came yesterday when it emerged that officers might also question Baroness Morgan, Mr Blair's former political fixer.
Plain-clothes officers have seized documents and e-mails from the Cabinet Office, plunging Whitehall into an atmosphere which one official described as "reminiscent of the Hutton Report" - a reference to the inquiry into the death in 2003 of the government weapons expert, Dr David Kelly. Detectives went into the Ceremonial Secretariat, which handles recommendations for honours.
Lord Levy, who is also the president of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT), the organisation that recruits sponsors for city academies, will be questioned about claims by the head teacher, Des Smith - who was arrested and bailed last week - that donors to Mr Blair's high-profile city academies would be rewarded with honours or peerages. Friends said Lord Levy would make clear he believed that nothing improper had taken place.
Lord Adonis, the education minister, who is an architect of the specialist schools scheme, also looks likely to be questioned. The Sunday Telegraph has established that Des Smith was hired to work on the academies programme by officials at Lord Adonis's department and not by the SSAT.
The revelation undermines the Government's attempts to distance itself from the beleaguered head teacher.
A Labour insider said: "The police are looking at the sale of peerages for honours and this academies row is seen as the weak point.
"In terms of Labour, there are two people at the centre - Blair and Levy. Levy only ever reported to Blair and there is no one between Levy and Blair so only he or Blair can be blamed. There is always a fall guy in these things, but Levy is determined he will not be it."
A series of wealthy Labour backers who loaned money are also to be questioned by officers investigating a possible breach of the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act.
Lord Levy will appear before the Commons public administration select committee in a televised question-and-answer session on May 2 as part of a separate parliamentary inquiry.
Opposition MPs said last night that it was impossible for Lord Levy to continue as both chief fund-raiser and president of the SSAT.
Martin Bell, the former independent MP for Tatton who was elected on an "anti-sleaze" ticket, said the situation was worse than the corruption he campaigned against during the years of John Major's government. "What is happening now is substantially worse," he said. "It's time to stop the rot, and one way to start is to freeze all appointments to the Lords until such time that this matter is resolved."
Angus MacNeil, the Scottish Nationalist MP whose original complaint led to the police inquiry into the cash-for-honours scandal, said: "Instead of hiding in the Downing Street bunker, the Prime Minister has to acknowledge the full seriousness of the position he is now in.
"There's a total collapse of confidence in the integrity of his Government and a widespread belief that honours are bartered around like second-hand cars. Tony Blair's now the Arthur Daley of Westminster politics."
Source | |  | | ktholcombe | | Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 5:11 pm Post subject: |
| Lord Levy arrested over honours probe
Last Modified: 12 Jul 2006
Source: ITN
Labour Party chief fundraiser Lord Levy has been arrested in connection with Scotland Yard's cash for honours inquiry.
The Metropolitan Police is probing whether party backers were offered peerages in return for loans.
Lord Levy has denied any wrongdoing and accused the police of using their arrest powers "totally unnecessarily", his spokesman said tonight.
Lord Levy, nicknamed Lord Cashpoint for his role in raising funds for Labour, has been a high profile figure within the party since Tony Blair's election.
He regularly plays tennis with Mr Blair and is the Prime Minister's personal Middle East envoy. His arrest takes the cash for honours probe close to Number 10.
Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "This is a party matter and I'm not going to comment."
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: "This is certainly a dramatic development in the cash for honours story, though perhaps not unexpected seeing as Lord Levy seems to have a finger in every fundraising pie.
"There is no doubt that the longer this goes on, the closer it gets to the Prime Minister's door.
"This only adds to the fin de siecle feel around Tony Blair. It is ludicrous for the Prime Minister to refuse to comment on the basis that this is a party matter. Is Tony Blair not leader of the Labour Party?"
http://www.channel4.com/news/content/news-storypage.jsp?id=2110850 | | | | ktholcombe | | Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 5:30 pm Post subject: |
| Whiff of corruption? Good heavens......... 
Times Online July 12, 2006
Analysis: Levy arrest will cause panic at No 10
"They will be in meltdown in Downing Street this afternoon. Lord Levy is personally identified with the Prime Minister. He bankrolled him while he was in opposition. Tony Blair made him a peer, appointed him his Middle East envoy. He is his tennis partner.
"Mr Blair and the then general secretary of the Labour Party were the only ones apart from Lord Levy who knew about the secret loans, and Lord Levy is at the apex of all of it.
"I am surprised that the arrest has come so soon, but the story that The Times ran on Saturday - saying that an unnamed Labour Party person told Sir Gulam Noon to withdraw the references to his Labour loan from the paperwork going to the House of Lords' commission on the appointment of peers - may have meant that the police had to act.
"If the allegation is true, it was a deliberate attempt to subvert the election law that Labour itself brought in as recently as 2000 in order to stamp out corruption.
"This will send a shiver down the spines of every Labour donor, and every Labour MP. And it has brought the whiff of corruption to the door of No 10."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2267109,00.html | | | | Anglo Thug | | Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:04 pm Post subject: |
| Watch out for the Labour Party in general being painted up as the innocent victim in this scandal. Blair's on the way out (and up). It would be a travesty to pin everything to his back so he can carry it far away from the party that has done absolutely nothing to curb his excess. All those MPs and peers could easily end up selling the, 'Powerless to act and only following orders and things will be very different now', routine when Brown, ludicrously untainted by anything at all it seems, slides into power in another demonstration of what democracy actually means on this island. Any politician (or more likely ex-politician) that hasn't felt the need to speak up since 1997 is in every way as guilty as Blair. It should be the whole stinking nest that's fumigated, not just number 10. When I was younger I concluded the only way to deal with a man of politics is forcefully, everyone thought me mad of course. But I wasn't wrong then and I'm not wrong now, maybe less people doubt my sanity now their own eyes have seen the glory. However, seeing as our libertarians have removed our right to speak our minds in public I should emphasis I'm not encouraging anyone at all to follow up my thoughts with actions. I guess that's the standard disclaimer on all thoughts in this time of great freedom.
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Please sign the petition to prosecute War Criminal Tony Blair | | | | Alpha | | | | Nobody | | Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 1:45 am Post subject: |
| Does Levy arrest threaten Blair?
It is hard to think of any other event that could prove to be as damaging to Tony Blair as the arrest of his chief fundraiser Lord Levy.
More....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5174082.stm | | | | ktholcombe | | Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:37 pm Post subject: |
| | Nobody wrote: | | It is hard to think of any other event that could prove to be as damaging to Tony Blair as the arrest of his chief fundraiser Lord Levy. |
No surprise that the BBC can't think of anything that could be as damaging, is it....
UK News
Levy back to answer more police questions
Lord Levy has today returned to a London police station to be questioned in relation to the cash-for-peerages scandal.
Labour's chief fundraiser was arrested yesterday and bailed pending further enquiries but has today been asked to return to talk to Scotland Yard detectives once more.
'A man arrested yesterday in connection with alleged offences under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 and Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 has this morning returned to a London police station for further questioning,' a Metropolitan police spokesman said.
The peer is a close friend of prime minister Tony Blair and is one of his closest political allies, meaning that yesterday's arrest – the second in the Met's investigation – was deeply embarrassing for the government.
Lord Levy is being questioned in relation to the alleged offering of peerages to businessmen who made loans to political parties. Commercial loans did not need to be declared in the same way as donations.
He has strongly denied any wrongdoing and yesterday issued a statement saying that his arrest had been 'totally unnecessary'.
Following yesterday's arrest, the officer in charge of the police's investigation appeared before MPs to be quizzed on the inquiry's progress.
The Met's deputy assistant commissioner, John Yates, is appearing at a meeting of the public administration select
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/uk/article_1180452.php/Levy_back_to_answer_more_police_questions | | | | ktholcombe | | Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:39 pm Post subject: |
| No.10 fights to stop police from questioning Blair
BILL JACOBS
WESTMINSTER EDITOR
DOWNING Street was today fighting to stop Tony Blair being quizzed by police over the "cash for peerages" affair after the arrest of his personal fundraiser Lord Levy.
No 10 was denying that the Prime Minister would be questioned by officers as part of their rapidly growing inquiry.
But senior opposition politicians were convinced that Mr Blair had to be interviewed as the next stage of their investigation.
The fight between the Metropolitan Police and Mr Blair's inner circle came as Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates was to meet senior MPs in private to discuss the progress of the probe.
The arrest of Lord Levy, Labour's chief fundraiser who secured the controversial £14 million worth of undeclared loans for the party before the last election, stunned Westminster.
His solicitors issued a statement saying he was more than happy to co-operate with the inquiry and was surprised and angry the police used their powers of arrest when he turned up to be interviewed at a London police station.
Lord Levy was being interviewed by detectives again today.
He answered bail this morning and was being interviewed at a London police station, believed to be Colindale.
Some Labour MPs think it is no coincidence the arrest came as Mr Yates was preparing to meet the House of Commons Public Administration Committee to update them on the matter.
The all-party group has agreed not to question key witnesses while the investigation was proceeding, but has warned that if it doesn't see signs of progress it will break the agreement and go-ahead with a hearing.
Mr Yates was expected to tell them that the probe could go on till September as officers from the Met specialist crime directorate sifted through documents obtained from Lord Levy yesterday.
They are also using specialist software to go through e-mails between Labour and potential donors including tracking down those that have been deleted.
Lord Levy was the second person linked to Labour to be arrested and bailed without charge, following headmaster Des Smith's interview after he claimed that supporting Mr Blair's pet city academy projects in England could guarantee a peerage.
The investigation by the police under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 and the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 is a result of claims that Labour donors and lenders were being nominated for peerages of a result of their financial generosity.
Three days ago it was claimed that Lord Levy had told one of the four lenders to Labour, curry tycoon Sir Gulam Noon, that he need not declare the loan to the committee vetting his nomination to become a member of the House of Lords.
Despite Downing Street's denials that Mr Blair would be investigated, opposition politicians claimed it was now inevitable.
Tory Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said he expected Mr Blair to be questioned in person.
He said: "The police are clearly taking this seriously. , It must be pretty worrying for the top ranks of the Labour Party."
SNP leader Alex Salmond said: "Lord Levy is Tony Blair's personal friend, his bag man, his fundraiser, his personal envoy to the Middle East.
"It is inconceivable that Lord Levy could be up to anything - if indeed he was up to anything - without the knowledge and consent of the Prime Minister.
"I think, therefore, we can say that the waters are lapping around the Prime Minister's ankles."
http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1021312006&format=print | | | | ktholcombe | | Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:25 am Post subject: |
| Oh dear.....the greedy, grasping, power hungry Blair bitches are quarrelling. How revolting....
Lord Levy denies stopping businessman's loan declaration
By Neil Tweedie
(Filed: 18/07/2006)
Lord Levy has told police that he did not intervene to stop the businessman Sir Gulam Noon from declaring a £250,000 loan to the Labour Party on his application for a peerage.
The Prime Minister's principal fund-raiser denied any attempt to conceal the loan, saying he was merely responding to a "blunder" by Sir Gulam after the latter entered the amount as an outright gift on his print-out application to the Lords appointment commission.
Sources close to Lord Levy said yesterday that he would have been happy for Sir Gulam to have declared the sum to the commission on a separate piece of paper, but the inclusion of the £250,000 on the form was inaccurate and had to be changed.
Sir Gulam had asked for Lord Levy's advice after telephoning Downing Street, the source said.
The briefing represents a fight back by Lord Levy, whose arrest last week escalated the "cash for peerages" scandal that could soon engulf the Prime Minister. But it was immediately rebutted by Sir Gulam, who yesterday stuck to the account given by him to the police.
He told investigators that Lord Levy, and not he, had made the relevant telephone call the day after the first form was submitted on Oct 4 last year. Lord Levy advised him that he did not have to mention the £250,000 loan because it was not "reportable", he said. Sir Gulam was happy to remove it and submitted another form.
"I stand by my original version," he said. "I am not going to change a full stop or comma."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/18/nlevy18.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/07/18/ixuknews.html | | | | ktholcombe | | Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:36 pm Post subject: |
|
The Times July 24, 2006
Cash-for-peerages inquiry puts Blair interview on hold
By Rajeev Syal and Andrew Pierce
POLICE are expected to postpone plans to interview the Prime Minister over “cash for honours” allegations because Lord Levy has refused to answer their questions.
Detectives, who had hoped to interview Tony Blair by the end of September, could stall their plans because Lord Levy has read them a written statement and said “no comment” when they probed further.
As a result, Whitehall sources claimed yesterday that plans to interview Mr Blair by the end of September could be put on hold, forcing the cost of the inquiry to spiral.
The disclosure will prompt speculation that Downing Street or the Labour Party may be behind the stalling tactic, hoping that the police inquiry will shudder to a halt.
A senior Whitehall source said that the police could not proceed quickly without Lord Levy’s responses. “Lord Levy’s decision to take up a ‘no comment’ position has put police in a difficult place,” the source said. “The cost of the investigation will inevitably climb because they will have to seek other ways of obtaining information they believe he has access to.
“They hoped to interview the Prime Minister before Labour’s conference, but that will almost certainly be changed now,” the source added.
Police arrested Lord Levy 12 days ago, when he was questioned at a North London police station. They searched his London home and seized documents and computer files. He was quizzed by officers over his role in securing £14 million in loans for Labour from four millionaire donors who had been recommended for peerages.
The source said that Lord Levy, who is also the Prime Minister’s tennis partner, “read from a prepared statement and then said ‘no comment’ to everything he was asked”.
The Times revealed 16 days ago that Sir Gulam Noon had been asked by a Labour official to hide a £250,000 loan to the party by omitting details from an official House of Lords nomination form. Two days later, it emerged that Lord Levy was that official. Two days after that, he was arrested.
Lord Levy denies any wrongdoing in his efforts to raise money for Labour. His spokesman yesterday declined to comment because of the on-going police inquiry.
Prosecution sources have previously said that detectives planned to interview Mr Blair before the political conference season, and his closest advisers concede that after the arrest of Lord Levy, an interview is inevitable. Jonathan Powell, Mr Blair’s chief of staff and longest-serving adviser, is expecting to be interviewed at the same time.
The Prime Minister’s supporters had hoped that the conference in Manchester would help to drive up the party’s sluggish opinion poll ratings. “The last thing we need is for police to turn up and to question us just as we are returning to Westminster,” one official said.
MPs loyal to Mr Blair are eager to portray the arrest of Lord Levy as a theatrical stunt. They fear there will be a temptation for the police to stage a similar event with the Prime Minister.
The Tories may also face a police investigation over allegations that they secretly banked a “soft” loan provided below bank interest rates, it emerged yesterday.
A company controlled by Malcolm Scott, a treasurer for the Scottish Tories, loaned £200,000 to the party with interest payable at a quarter of 1 per cent per annum.
Legislation introduced in 2001 states that any loans not on commercial terms are deemed gifts and must be publicly declared to the Electoral Commission.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2282947,00.html | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
