Blair under attack for secret campaign loans

Blair Under Attack in Britain as Party Admits Big Loans

Blair under attack for secret campaign loans
Ruling Labor Party revealed that it received $24.5m in loans from wealthy individuals.
· Economist editor calls for Blair to quit


By ALAN COWELL
Published: March 17, 2006
LONDON, March 17 — Britain's ruling Labor Party acknowledged today that it had received more than three times the amount it had previously acknowledged in contentious and undeclared campaign loans.

The disclosure threatened to intensify a debate swirling around the political future of Prime Minister Tony Blair, coinciding with an editorial in The Economist magazine reversing its support for him in last year's election.

It would be "better, surely, for him to quit while he is still ahead," The Economist said, echoing remarks right and left in other publications.

The undisclosed loans have raised a question for many Britons about whether Mr. Blair's party has become embroiled in the same quagmire of sleaze — a popular tabloid term — that proved to be a key factor in the defeat of its predecessor, the Conservatives, in the 1997 elections.


more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/international/europe/17cnd-britain.html?ex=1300251600&en=33cf39cece01c89d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
and: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,,1733224,00.html
via: http://www.rawstory.com/