Britain’s top law officer gagged a media outlet for a second time from reporting on Monday on an alleged ”bombshell” memo at the heart of a cash-for-honours row threatening Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The injunction by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith — a member of the Cabinet and close Blair ally — against the Sun newspaper came after he took similar action against the BBC on Friday over a reported email between two key aides.
”The attorney general, acting on behalf of the Metropolitan Police, demanded assurances we would not print the explosive contents of an email,” said the Sun, adding that its lawyers had agreed to the request.
The ”cash-for-honours” investigation centres on allegations that political parties, including Blair’s Labour, offered seats in Britain’s unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, in return for financial assistance.
It has seen Blair questioned by police twice and the arrest of two senior aides, chief fundraiser Lord Michael Levy and Downing Street director of government relations Ruth Turner.
The email at the centre of the gagging orders was allegedly sent from Turner to Blair’s Chief of Staff, Jonathan Powell.
The contents of the memo are not known, but the Sun said it had been warned that publishing the email risked ”impeding” a year-long investigation into the loans-for-lordships allegations.
Blair has said he will leave office by September and commentators believe he is most likely to go in June or July.
But his final months in office are being clouded by the controversy, which many lawmakers claim is sapping his authority.
A poll released on Saturday suggested that less than a fifth of Britons see Blair as ”honest and straightforward”, underlining how the ”cash-for-honours” inquiry has hit his standing. — AFP
