UNITED KINGDOM: GOVERNMENT DENIES ALLEGATION IN BOOK THAT TONY BLAIR AND GORDON BROWN KNEW OF BERNIE ECCLESTONE'S DONATION TO LABOUR PARTY

Record ID: 338041

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: GOVERNMENT DENIES ALLEGATION IN BOOK THAT TONY BLAIR AND GORDON BROWN KNEW OF BERNIE ECCLESTONE'S DONATION TO LABOUR PARTY
  • Date: 20th January 2000
  • Summary: HEATHROW AIRPORT, NEAR LONDON, UK (REUTERS FILE, JANUARY 20, 2000) 1. BERNIE ECCELSTONE, FORMULA ONE BOSS, GETTING OFF PLANE 2. SIR STIRLING MOSS AND ECCELSTONE WITH MELBOURNE GRAND PRIX ORGANISERS 3. PHOTOGRAPHERS AND JOURNALISTS 4. ECCELSTONE WITH WOMEN WEARING THE NEW FASHIONS FOR THE MELBOURNE GRAND PRIX Initials
  • Embargoed: 4th February 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON,ENGLAND, UK
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA5PK4EHJTSSQSHBRTJC9LH0RYR
  • Story Text: Britain's Labour government denied on Tuesday (September
    19) that Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown
    had lied to journalists in 1997 during a scandal over a party
    donation by the boss of Formula One.



    The allegation in a new book came as the government was
    reeling after its worst poll ratings for years. Its double-digit
    lead evaporated in the wake of last week's fuel crisis.

    The book by Andrew Rawnsley, political commentator for the
    Observer newspaper, alleges Brown misled a BBC interviewer in
    1997 when he denied knowledge of the one million pound (1.40
    million U.S dollars) donation from Formula One motor racing boss
    Bernie Ecclestone.

    Blair was misleading, according to Rawnsley, by telling the
    BBC that the government had been in touch with Commons
    authorities for advice on the donation before any journalist was
    interested in the story -- when this was not true.

    London's Downing Street and the Treasury denied the
    allegations, published as excerpts from the new book in the
    Daily Mail newspaper on Tuesday (September 19).

    The opposition Conservative party said they would refer the
    matter to the Committee for Standards in Public Life, the
    parliamentary watchdog. But a spokesman for the committee said
    it did not probe individual cases.

    Blair suffered the first serious mishap of his government in
    the autumn of 1997 when it was disclosed that Ecclestone had
    made the donation before the election held in May that year.

    At the time, Britain was urging that European Union plans to
    ban sports sponsorship by tobacco companies be deferred in the
    case of motor racing. Labour later returned Ecclestone's cash.

    The Rawnsley book claimed that Brown, who had denied during
    a 1997 BBC radio interview any knowledge of the Ecclestone
    donation, went back to his office and raged at his staff,
    saying, "I lied. I lied ..If this gets out, I'll be destroyed."
    The book also claims that Blair was so distressed about the
    affair that he declared at one point "This is the end. They'll
    get me for this."
    Michael Portillo, the opposition Conservatives' finance
    spokesman, told the BBC on Tuesday that the allegations were
    serious.

    But Margaret Beckett, Labour's leader in the House of
    Commons, said she thought it was a diversion from the fuel tax
    issue that has gripped Britain in the past 10 days.



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