Lord Cashpoint joined Blair’s secret talks
THE mystery over Tony Blair’s secret meeting with a Labour donor who has called for a breakaway political party deepened last night when it emerged Lord Levy – who helped to bankroll Labour under Blair – was also there.
Mr Blair and Lord Levy – dubbed ‘Lord Cashpoint’ when he was Blair’s Downing Street fundraiser – travelled to Hull last month for discussions with Dr Assem Allam, who has offered to fund moderate Labour MPs who want to leave Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour and set up a new ‘centrist’ party.
Dr Allam, 77, the owner of Hull City Football Club who has given £720,000 to Labour, said that during the meeting he had offered to give Mr Blair several million pounds to boost the Centre Left. But he changed his mind a fortnight later when Theresa May called the General Election.
The revelation of Lord Levy’s participation adds to the intrigue over what has been dubbed the ‘new New Labour’ plot by moderates disenchanted by Jeremy Corbyn.
Levy ran the Labour Leader’s Office Fund to finance Blair’s campaign before his 1997 Election landslide, becoming a Labour peer shortly after the victory. Between 1994 and 2007 he raised more than £100million for the Labour Party.
In 2006 he became embroiled in the cash-for-honours scandal when he was arrested and questioned over claims that money had been paid to political parties in return for honours, but no charges were made against him.
Party moderates alienated by Corbyn are divided over whether to stay in the party and fight to reclaim the leadership, or to form a breakaway party backed by Blairite donors. Mr Blair denies that he discussed forming a new party during the meeting.
Lord Levy and Dr Allam declined to comment.