Was F1’s £1m gift to Blair also to put Mosley in Commons?
In the furore that followed the 1997 revelation that Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone had given new Labour £1million, most critics assumed the donation had been made to persuade the party to drop its pledge to ban tobacco advertising.
If so, it certainly worked. Motor racing was granted an exemption by new Prime Minister Tony Blair.
But there was another reason for the enormous sum. As Tom Bower, the biographer of Ecclestone, explains: ‘Bernie told me he wanted to ingratiate Max (Mosley) with Blair so that Max would be given a Labour seat.’
The sweetener would be a ‘great favour’ Max told Ecclestone. And Bernie owed Max a considerable debt. As partners they had gained control of a sport worth billions.
The donation of very large amounts of money to Labour in return for access and influence is a theme in Mr Mosley’s life over the 25 years.
In a 2015 interview, Mosley boasted: ‘If I want to be friends with the Prime Minister and I give a million pounds I will get access and invitations. It may be wrong but it is not illegal.’
In less than 12 months in 2016-17, Mr Mosley gave some £540,000 to Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, who shared his views on press regulation. But he had cut his teeth with the new Labour donation. Max had tried to become a Tory MP in 1983 but was rejected as a prospective candidate. In the 1990s, after becoming president of F1’s governing body the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Mosley turned his attentions to Labour. After the death of John Smith in 1994, Mosley gave an FIA job to David Ward, the late leader’s chief of staff.
In 1995, Mosley took tea with Blair at his Islington house. Blair was also invited to Silverstone in 1996 for the British Grand Prix.
The political power wielded by the EcclestoneMosley axis was revealed in 1997 with the tobacco advertising ‘scandal’. new Labour had made a ban on tobacco advertising an election pledge. Cigarette firms were major F1 sponsors.
In his own autobiography Mosley claims the idea of a £1million donation by Ecclestone was first put to Ward by Blair’s office. Labour fundraiser Lord Levy – later arrested but not charged in the ‘cash for honours’ inquiry – then met Ecclestone to try and seal the deal.
In his Ecclestone book, no Angel, Bower recorded that Ecclestone, a Tory voter, was not initially keen to help new Labour.
‘Accordingly, Mosley ratcheted up the pressure,’ Bower wrote. ‘“It would be a great favour to me, Bernie,” said Mosley. As a frustrated politician, Mosley mentioned that £1million would not only give him access to Blair to lobby on F1’s behalf but also provide an opportunity to present himself as a prospective Labour politician. In Ecclestone’s opinion, Mosley’s new pitch tilted the reason for a donation. Giving money to Labour, Ecclestone believed, could now be justified. “I want Max to be in a good position to get a Labour seat,” [he] said. “I want to help Max look good in front of Blair”.’
Bower wrote that Ecclestone found nothing strange in Max wanting to serve in new Labour following his Tory bid. Sir Oswald Mosley had also served both parties. ‘Max didn’t care if he was Tory or Labour’, Bower reported Ecclestone to have said.
The Ecclestone donation was made in January 1997, four months before the election. That October, Ecclestone and Mosley met Blair at no 10 to discuss the sponsorship ban that was being floated by the European Commission. Shortly afterwards the Labour government sought from the EU a total exemption for F1. This was to result in a compromise deal.
But when the donation came to light Labour was forced by public opinion to return the £1million, while both parties denied any connection between it and the exemption.
In his autobiography Mr Mosley said the donation had nothing to do with tobacco sponsorship. He makes no mention of his own political ambitions. He also said he resigned his then membership of the Labour Party in 2003 over the invasion of Iraq. He has since rejoined and bankrolls Mr Watson.
Following the Mail’s revelations this week, will Mr Watson follow his own party’s previous example and return the ‘tainted’ money to Mr Mosley?
‘I want to help Max look good in front of Blair’