Jump to full article: The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday (uk), 2008-10-12
Author: Simon Walters and Jo Macfarlane
Intro: Devastating secret documents suggest Tony Blair did not tell the truth over Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone's �1million donation to Labour in 1997.
Government papers released yesterday under the Freedom of Information Act appear to show Downing Street deliberately tried to conceal the way that Mr Blair gave orders for Formula One to be exempt from a tobacco advertising ban just 24 hours after meeting Mr Ecclestone at No 10.
When the controversy erupted ten years ago, Mr Blair said his decision had nothing to do with the meeting with Mr Ecclestone and leaders of Formula One's FIA governing body on October 16, 1997, and was taken 'two or three weeks' later.
But the documents show that he wrote to Health Minister Tessa Jowell the next day to press for a permanent exemption for Formula One from the proposed EU ban on tobacco adverts.
And Mr Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell was even quicker off the mark and phoned her straight after the Ecclestone meeting to tell her the Prime Minister had ruled she must give in to Mr Ecclestone's demand.
The Tories last night called for a fresh investigation into Mr Blair's conduct and said he should be hauled before the Commons to explain himself.
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