Police contact Gordon Brown in funding probe

Reuters

Police probing allegations political parties awarded state honours in return for cash have contacted a host of senior government ministers, fuelling speculation Prime Minister Tony Blair may be questioned soon.

Police sent letters to most members of Blair's 2005 cabinet, including Chancellor Gordon Brown, requesting evidence in their probe, ministers' aides and a government source said on Wednesday.

Detectives want to know if ministers were aware that four rich businessmen who helped bankroll the ruling Labour Party's 2005 election campaign had been nominated by Blair for seats in parliament's unelected upper house.

The slew of police contacts has heightened long-standing speculation that Blair will eventually be quizzed. The prime minister's office said he had not been contacted.

When the cash-for-honours row flared in March this year, Blair said he knew about the undeclared loans from individuals who were later nominated for Lords seats, also known as peerages, but denied there was any link.

If questioned, Blair would become the first prime minister since Lloyd George in the 1920s to be interviewed by police in a cash-for-honours probe. That probe resulted in a 1925 law making it illegal to sell state honours.

The furore has led to demands for reform of political party funding in Britain and heaped pressure on Blair to step down. Read more