Yet more on cash for honours.
Lord Sainsbury, the Labour party's biggest donor (£13m), has quit as science minister. He insists it has nothing to do with the cash for honours scandal but, in the time honoured formula, he wants to spend more time with his family. Translation: there is some problem or other but all those concerned want to keep it out of the public domain.
Off-the-record Labour party sources are telling the Daily Telegraph a different story: ...Labour insiders said the peer, who lent the party £2 million last year, was infuriated that he had become embroiled in the controversy over the secret loans the party used to bankroll last year's general election.
Infuriated? I suspect the only thing Sainsbury is infuriated about is getting caught not behaving himself: Lord Sainsbury had already been forced to make a humiliating apology earlier this year for "unintentionally" misleading the public after he said he had declared his £2 million loan to senior officials at his department. It later emerged that he had not told civil servants about the money.
And while we are on the subject of infuriation, the Daily Mail reports that the police have reason to be annoyed with the Education secretary, Alan Johnson.
...Johnson was tonight accused of pre-empting police findings over the cash-for-peerages affair after claiming there was nothing "at the core" of the probe.When ministers start attacking the investigation, (on which the Mail link has more) it is sure sign the government is guilty of something.
The Education Secretary risked infuriating Scotland Yard by indicating that detectives have blown the six-month investigation out of proportion.
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