Knighthood row Baroness Brazen ‘DID help friend’
THE political head of the Commonwealth faced new embarrassment last night after it was claimed that she helped a friend secure a knighthood that was later revoked.
Ex-Cabinet Minister Baroness Scotland has always insisted she did not arrange for Anthony Bailey to meet Grenada’s Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, who awarded the honour in return for charitable donations.
But speaking for the first time about the affair, Dr Mitchell insisted that it was the Secretary-General who introduced them – and claimed Baroness Scotland was present at the meeting when honours were discussed.
‘Bailey came to this country through someone who stood at the highest level of British Government, the former Attorney General of Britain,’ Dr Mitchell said.
‘I didn’t know [Bailey] but he had an appointment in my office as I knew Patricia Scotland.’
In a statement to The Mail on Sunday earlier this year, Baroness Scotland – who has been dubbed ‘Baroness Brazen’ – insisted that ‘she did not arrange the meeting’.
At the time Mr Bailey was touring the Caribbean, conferring honours upon dignitaries on behalf of his obscure Catholic order and receiving them in return.
To the dismay of the Foreign Office and the Royal Household, he used an honour obtained from Antigua in this way to masquerade as a knight in the UK.
Dr Mitchell said: ‘They claimed they had this Constantinian Order, and they gave medals, all kinds of claims were made.’
But Baroness Scotland’s office told this newspaper that ‘she did not have an operational role in the Order,’ despite serving as the deputy head of the group’s British branch.
Mr Bailey and Baroness Scotland first met Dr Mitchell in October 2014. A few months later, Mr Bailey and three friends were given knighthoods by the Grenadian government as part of a ‘reciprocal arrangement’. These were later revoked following revelations by The Mail on Sunday that they may have violated the country’s laws.
Under the Grenadian Honours Act, only two people can receive knighthoods each year. However, Mr Bailey managed to obtain four for himself and his allies in a day.
Dr Mitchell said: ‘The government I am leading did agree to [the knighthood], based on what we thought was in the country’s best interests.
‘The minute we found out there were some issues, it was cancelled. The knighthood has been revoked. He is no longer a knight. He was formally written to. He wanted more than that. He wanted us to make him Ambassador to the Vatican. I said “No way!”.’
According to Mr Mitchell, the meeting with Baroness Scotland formed part of her campaign to become Secretary-General.
‘Scotland did everything to be elected Secretary-General,’ Dr Mitchell said. ‘She knew Grenada had agreed not to vote for her. When she finally won, after having been so nice to me before, she passed me like a licence [discarded me].’
In May, The Mail on Sunday revealed how Mr Bailey had received his Antiguan knighthood after promising £1.1 million in donations to the island nation.