British Prime Minister Tony Blair is likely to stand down early if charges are brought in the cash-for-honors affair against any of his key aides, including Ruth Turner, arrested on Friday on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
Ministers said they were certain Blair would not seek to stay until his planned departure date of June or July if any of his immediate entourage were charged.
One senior Labour minister told the Guardian: "[Blair] knows he would need to do the right thing for the party."
Senior ministers said Blair remained convinced of Turner's innocence and doubted that the police had -- as reported at the weekend -- hacked into No. 10 Downing Street's computers to show that she and other Downing Street aides had not been co-operating with the inquiry team.
But while any decision to lay charges would not necessarily lead to convictions, it would represent a dramatic raising of the stakes and undermine Downing Street's suggestions that the investigation is based on a bogus interpretation of the law. The minister added that if anyone were charged it might become impossible to govern.
"The focus would drift away from what he is trying to do," the minister said.
It has been previously reported that the police had commissioned advice from computer experts in an effort to find deleted e-mails or computer records.
In an attempt to ease the tension between No. 10 and the police over the manner of Turner's arrest, the lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, said it would be best if the government remained silent. Pressed on the subject, he told the BBC: "I think we should just stay out of it."
But officials were still arguing, privately and publicly, that police had acted in an unnecessary way by arriving at Turner's front door at 6.30am with four officers determined to search her home.
Turner's friends said she and her lawyers had cooperated fully with the inquiry. If no charges are brought at the end of this year-long investigation, some senior Labour figures intend to voice their views on the police behavior in the strongest terms.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said at the weekend she was "slightly bewildered" by the police's behavior and former home secretary David Blunkett again questioned the police's tactics.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS