Cash for honours: donors say Blair 'misled' police

When dealing with Blair we must always remember that we are dealing with a lawyer. Often, his answers are carefully worded. I have already expressed my disbelief at his claim that he gave honours to certain people who made subtantial donations in recognition of "services to the Labour Party" rather than for services to the country.

It smells like a lawyer's answer. A subterfuge. A way of blocking you off at the pass.

Now, his answers are coming under scrutiny and are found to be lacking.

The donors expressed surprise after Mr Blair's historic interview with Scotland Yard in Downing Street last Thursday, when he told the police the honours were "expressly party peerages given for party service".

In contrast, the official nomination documents, marked "Restricted Appointments", say that Mr Blair's "grounds for recommendation" to the House of Lords were the donors' work in the fields of education, health and charity. The leaked citations make no mention of "party service" and cast doubt on No 10's assertion that the honours were not bestowed in exchange for cash.

I always thought that Blair's answer was too clever by half. For what service had these men provided to the Labour Party? Other than the provision of funds? And, if you are giving awards on the grounds that these people aided the party by donating to it, how can you then claim that they are not buying peerages?

Indeed, Sir David Garrard - one of the people nominated - is not even a member of the Labour Party.

Lord Oakeshott, a LibDem Treasury spokesman, said: "What services have the failed peers performed for Labour apart from giving big donations? The sooner Mr Blair has to tell the truth on oath in court about the real reasons he nominated these people for peerages the better."

As always, Blair fancies himself as having the clever lawyer's answer that will see off his critics. It doesn't have to be true, it simply has to meet the challenges of his opponents.

In this case, even the people who donated to the party are finding it hard to reconcile Blair's reasoning with the truth.

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Blair told police donors were being honoured for services to Labour. These documents say different.

There was speculation in Whitehall that Mr Blair's form of words was designed by lawyers. Some think the police may have come to the conclusion, after interviewing dozens of witnesses, that the Labour nominees would not have been credible candidates for peerages had it not been for their huge donations or loans to Labour. All four men's peerages were, after all, rejected by the vetting body that checks if the nominees would be "credible... irrespective of any payments made to a political party or cause".

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