Outcry at revelations of how Blair kept his lucrative deals secret
TONY Blair was under fire last night after it emerged he persuaded Whitehall officials to keep details of his post Downing Street advisory work secret.
The former Labour prime minister wrote to senior civil servants asking for any contacts struck on behalf of his consultancy firm to remain “confidential”.
In a letter sent the year after leaving office, Mr Blair said he wanted his business dealings to remain private to protect his clients, including foreign governments and international companies.
Following his request in 2008, the official watchdog that vets jobs ministers take up after leaving Westminster agreed to avoid publishing any details about Tony Blair Associates that would “attract unnecessary attention”.
Details of his letter were revealed yesterday after a four-year legal battle over a Freedom of Information request.
A judge ordered the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) to release the papers after spending more than £10,000 resisting the FOI request.
Tory MP Nigel Evans criticised both Mr Blair and the committee yesterday over the secrecy.
He said: “It was wrong of him to ask for his work to be kept hidden and wrong of the officials to do his bidding. To spend thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on fighting to keep this secret was a travesty.
“Tony Blair has been a money-making machine and he has been prepared to advise some pretty dubious governments around the world.
“The loophole that allows this secrecy needs to be closed.” Andrew Bridgen, another Tory MP, said: “This is another blow to Tony Blair’s battered credibility.
“It is clear he used his influence to suppress transparency. It is in the national interest that the public should know who he is doing business with.” In his letter, Mr Blair named financial firms JP Morgan Chase and Zurich Financial Services as his clients.
He wrote: “I am writing to ask that TBA [Tony Blair Associates] be permitted to maintain confidentiality with respect to its clients rather than report each individual commission it is offered to you for advice and subsequent publication.
“Many of the individuals, governments and entities that TBA will serve operate in competitive environments where disclosure of projects, plans and affiliations can have adverse commercial or political consequences, and they simply will not wish to have even the fact of a relationship with a consulting entity made public.”
Mr Blair’s work with Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, and governments, including Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates, during the two-year time frame were not disclosed via ACOBA.
Critics have accused Mr Blair of cashing in on his past office in his work as a consultant to a string of overseas governments. The former prime minister has denied the accusations.
A spokeswoman for Mr Blair’s office said: “Mr Blair acted in accordance with the ACOBA guidelines at all times.
“As this correspondence shows, his office was in regular contact with the committee, sought their advice and followed it.”