Jump to full article: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2008-10-12
Author: Chris Hastings and Patrick Hennessy
Intro: The truth about Tony Blair's actions during the notorious Ecclestone Affair - New Labour's first sleaze scandal - can be revealed for the first time after the release of previously secret Government documents.
The documents - released to The Sunday Telegraph after a two-and-a-half year Freedom of Information battle - reveal that Mr Blair personally intervened to secure Formula One's exemption from the tobacco advertising ban just hours after meeting Bernie Ecclestone, the motorsport's billionaire boss.
The Government has always maintained that the meeting with Mr Ecclestone, a major new Labour donor at the time, did not influence the final decision to offer the exemption.
However the previously secret papers show that Mr Blair did order ministers to find ways to implement the "derogation" for Formula One after the meeting.
The revelation casts doubt on the version of events given by officials both to Parliament and to lobby journalists when the sleaze scandal first broke in 1997. . . .
The documents also reveal that Mr Blair overrided the objections of then Health Secretary Frank Dobson who claimed that exempting Formula One could result in "serious damages to the Government".
A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "There is nothing new here. All these issues were debated at the time."
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