Investigators ponder next move after Blair aide arrest
Four people have now been arrested in relation to the cash-for-honours investigation
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Saturday, 20, Jan 2007 07:52
Police investigating the cash-for-honours affair are likely to ask for more time to present their findings following the arrest of one of Tony Blair's aides yesterday morning.
Ruth Turner became the fourth person to be arrested in Scotland Yard's probe into allegations that political donors were offered peerages in exchange for loans.
Assistant commissioner John Yates and his team have been investigating the affair since March last year and had initially pledged to deliver evidence to prosecutors in January 2007.
But the 06:30 GMT arrest and subsequent bail of Ms Turner, which follows that of Labour's chief fundraiser Lord Levy and two other individuals close to the party, is likely to push this date back further.
The probe was launched after a complaint by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in March last year and about 90 people have been contacted as part of it, including Mr Blair and senior Cabinet officials.
In April 2006 headteacher Des Smith was arrested and bailed, while Labour donor Sir Christopher Evans was questioned and released on bail in September last year.
No-one has been charged in connection with the affair.
A police statement issued yesterday confirmed that an unnamed 36-year-old woman had been arrested in connection with alleged offences under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 and on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
"She was taken to a London police station where she was interviewed and later bailed to return pending further enquiries."
Mr Blair has already given his full backing to Ms Turner, saying yesterday: "She is a person of the highest integrity for whom I have the great regard and I continue to have complete confidence in her."
And culture secretary Tessa Jowell today questioned whether the dawn raid arrest of Ms Turner had been appropriate.
Admitting she was "slightly bewildered" at the circumstances, she told BBC Radio 4's Any Questions that the Downing Street aide has "fully cooperated and she is a person of utter decency and conscientiousness and I am surprised".
But responding to this criticism, the chair of the Metropolitan police authority (MPA) has insisted that "no-one in this country is above the law".
"Throughout this investigation the police have, quite properly, refused to comment except to confirm that, as in any other criminal inquiry, they are following where the evidence leads," said Len Duvall.
"As chair of the MPA I must be seen never to seek to manipulate or pressurise senior officers in the Met on any operational inquiry. Others would do well to follow my example," he cautioned.