New Labour: Nice and sleazy does it

guardian: Blair expresses confidence in Jowell but questions continue

Tony Blair yesterday reprieved his beleaguered culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, when he accepted her assurance that she was not told for four years by her husband, David Mills, that he had received a 350,000 pound gift with which he had paid off a joint mortgage on their home.[db emphasis]

Ms Jowell acknowledged the gift should have been disclosed to civil servants under the code to avoid any conflict of interest. She added that her husband, a corporate lawyer, should have informed her of the gift.

Her plea of ignorance stretched the credulity of some angry Labour backbenchers, and one senior London Labour MP feared the mud would stick in the London local elections. One Tory backbencher, Nigel Evans, condemned the report as "staggering and a whitewash". He said he would be raising a complaint on her failure to register her other interests in the register of MPs' interests, including her interest in the Centurion hedge fund.

Critics are expected to seize on a number of peculiarities in her statement, notably how she appeared to be unaware of the injection of 350,000 pounds into the household finances for four years despite having made a subsequent joint mortgage application on the same property 18 months later. Read more

db: This won't go away. Please.