No charges over cash for honours, CPS confirms

By Philippe Naughton

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed today that nobody is to face any charges from the long-running police investigation into the cash-for-peerages allegations.The decision was announced by Carmen Dowd, head of the CPS’s special crime division, who said that she had decided that there was “no evidence that to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against any individual for any offence in this matter”.

The decision was hailed by the small group within Tony Blair’s inner circle who had been the police’s prime suspects in the 16-month investigation - including his chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, who complained bitterly about constant and damaging leaks from Scotland Yard.

Lord Levy, one of four people arrested during the inquiry, told a press confererence minutes after the CPS announcement that the past 16 months had been “incredibly long and really stressful”.

“We are all relieved it is over,” he said. “Since the investigation began I have had every confidence that no charges would be borught against me. Nevertheless it comes as a great relief that after a complete and thorough investigation has been assessed by the country’s leading legal experts I have been exonerated as expected.”

Lord Levy said that he did not intend to criticise the police’s handling of the investigation, which was led by Assistant Commisioner John Yates.

But he added: “However, I have been disappointed by the constant leaks to the media, which have been misleading, factually inaccurate and personally damaging to me.”

John McTernan, a senior Downing Street aide who was interviewed under caution by detectives and was one of four people arrested in the inquiry, also said that he was “massively relieved”.

“We always maintained privately that it would come to this point because we had never done anything wrong,” he said.

“I think it is all over and the police in my experience were scrupulously fair in the way they treated me. I believe they did the same with my colleagues.”

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said that he hoped that a line could now be drawn under the affair. Speaking at a press conference in France before the CPS ruling was confirmed, he said: “What I can say is that these were very serious allegations, it’s right that the police investigated these matters and I hope that once the police make the statement and the Crown Prosecution Service makes it clear, that we can bring an end to what has been now months of speculation.”

He promised reform of the funding of political parties. “Proposals are already on the table and we should move ahead to try and get a better system of political funding in our country,” he said.

The Metropolitan Police inquiry was launched in March last year after allegations from a Scottish National Party MP, Angus MacNeil, that four wealthy individuals had been nominated for peerages after lending Labour large sums of money.

The individuals were among 12 rich backers who together bankrolled Labour’s 2005 General Election campaign with loans worth almost £14 million.

Mr Blair was questioned three times by police during the course of the investigation - always as a witness, not a suspect.

Four people were arrested: Mr McTernan, Lord Levy, the Downing Street aide Ruth Turner and Sir Christopher Evans, a biotech tycoon who lent Labour £1 million.

News of the CPS decision not to charge anyone, after a police inquiry which cost more than £750,000, was greeted with anger both by those who initially demanded the probe and by

Labour MPs furious that it had been allowed to drag on for 13 months.

Before the CPS statement, Mr MacNeil said it would be “extraordinary” if the affair came to nothing. Labour’s Tony Wright, chairman of the Public Administration Committee, said no charges would represent “disaster for the police and a disaster for the political system”.

He said the call for a probe was an SNP “stunt” which the police took seriously - and then found themselves under pressure to “get something out of it”.

“It’s done great damage to our political system. Our system is fundamentally clean. It needs eternal vigilance but basically political issues need to be resolved by the political system,” he said.

Mr Yates headed a team from Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime Directorate which gathered more than 6,000 documents before handing a file to the CPS in April.

Some observers believe the inquiry contributed to Mr Blair leaving Downing Street earlier than intended and cost Labour votes in May’s elections in Scotland, Wales and local English councils.

Mr McTernan added: “(We’re) massively relieved, as individuals. I feel it for myself, I feel it for my colleagues, particularly for Ruth, but also for everybody who has been drawn in to this process.

“I think everybody in politics wishes it had been done faster because ultimately for the public it just looks mucky and murky and I don’t think anybody who is involved in politics actually genuinely believes anybody at a senior level in any of the major parties is involved in anything dodgy in relation to this.”

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