The Levy/Blair Strategy

The Sunday Times is reporting that Lord Levy - who is known as "Lord Cashpoint" - has put Blair in the frame over the "cash-for-peerages" scandal. Levy has apparently told the police that in obtaining loans he was acting on the direct orders of Blair. According to the Sunday Times: "...Levy told the police that everything he did was for the top man. It wasn’t for anybody else, just for Blair. That’s why the PM has to be interviewed...Blair hosted dinners and meetings with those who went on to lend money to Labour. He personally approved the controversial loan scheme...A friend of Levy said this weekend: “The prime minister knew all these people [who lent money] and it was entirely his decision who became working peers. He is right at the centre of the whole thing.“Lord Levy was against raising money through loans but did so after being asked to by Blair — amid serious financial problems for Labour. He has nothing to do with honours and could not offer anyone anything — that is up to the prime minister.” It is thought that the police will interview Blair within the next few weeks.

I suspect that what is going on here is that Levy is protecting himself. He knows that Blair is an "untouchable" (we like to think that the rule of law applies to everyone, but, really we know that this is not true). Levy is signalling that, if he is prosecuted, he will implicate Blair. His calculation is that this will make him safe. He is probably right. I suspect Blair is a party to this strategy.

The Sunday Times also reports that Blair believes the whole thing has been biased. It quotes "one source" as saying: "The Tories have been taking loans — and giving peerages to those making loans — for years, yet none of them have been arrested. Why not?” Well, Blair has a point there; and that is undoubtably why the Tories are not keen to try to make political capital out of this.