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Scandals show Labor far from working class

By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN
Published March 12, 2006

Vote for a party with "Labor" in the name and you might reasonably assume its leaders have something in common with ordinary, working-class folks.

That's hardly the case in Britain these days, where the Labor Party of Prime Minister Tony Blair is reeling from a scandal involving hedge funds, offshore tax havens and a "gift" of $600,000 from Italy's billionaire prime minister.

"Who would ever have thought a Labor government would be involved in all the dubious paraphernalia of what, in a different age, Sir Edward Heath once called the "unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism?' " columnist Melanie Phillips fumed in the Daily Mail.

"The reason is surely that, at its core, New Labor is a moral, cultural and political vacuum - and such a vacuum is almost always filled by corruption."

The brouhaha centers on one of Blair's favorite Labor colleagues, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. A well-liked politician, Jowell once said she would throw herself under a bus for Blair, so great was her regard for him.

Far less popular is Jowell's husband, David Mills, an international lawyer. Acquaintances describe him as brilliant but bombastic, with a penchant for demanding "Justify yourself!" when dinner guests fail to meet his rigorous standards of discourse.

Among Mills' clients was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who allegedly used Mills' legal savvy to launder and shelter some of the vast sums that have made him Italy's richest man. Italian authorities have been investigating claims that Berlusconi paid Mills 344,000 pounds - $600,000 - for not revealing details of his huge media empire during a 1997 corruption probe.

Italian prosecutors on Friday asked a judge to indict the two men on corruption charges. Both deny wrongdoing.

Though Mills has been under investigation for years, the furor in Britain erupted only after his wife - the culture secretary - claimed she didn't learn until recently that he had received the $600,000 "gift" from Berlusconi in 1999 or that he had used it to pay off the hefty mortgage on their London home six years ago. How on earth, the press and public wondered, could Jowell not have noticed that mortgage payments of several thousand pounds a month had suddenly stopped?

Showing how far removed Jowell and her husband are from the average "Labor" voter, subsequent revelations focused on other large, questionable mortgages and Mills' investment in a chain of pubs at a time his wife was helping to relax liquor licensing laws.

(As evidence of how much "culture" has changed in a nation that produced Shakespeare, Milton and Austen, Jowell's duties as culture secretary also include oversight of legalized gambling.)

In what many saw as a bid to save her political career, Jowell announced last week she was separating from her husband. And - here's a local angle - he flew to Tampa to tell their son Matthew, who attends a university in the bay area.

An investigator appointed by Blair said Jowell herself did nothing wrong, and the prime minister is standing by her. The flap might have faded sooner if such scandals hadn't become almost commonplace in the Labor government, which won power in 1997 by decrying the "sleaze and corruption" of its Conservative predecessor.

Barely six months after the election, Blair and other Labor leaders were battling allegations they tried to exempt Formula One racing from a ban on tobacco advertising in exchange for a million-pound campaign donation. (The money was later returned.)

Since then, one of Blair's closest advisers has been forced to resign not once, but twice, over two completely different scandals. The home secretary quit after it was revealed his office had fast-tracked a visa application for his lover's former nanny.

And Cherie Blair, the prime minister's wife, has been rapped for her large speaker fees. She reportedly got so much for a fundraising speech at one charity dinner there was little left over for the charity itself.

Perhaps most embarrassing in light of recent events, Blair has enjoyed the unique hospitality of his Italian counterpart. The Blairs have been guests at Berlusconi's villa in Sardinia, and he has showered them with gifts that include 18 luxury watches, four necklaces and two bracelets, according to Downing Street's official list of ministerial gifts.

"Just what is it with New Labor and money?" asked Phillips, the Daily Mail columnist.

It all comes at a time when Blair - President Bush's closest ally - faces growing criticism over his support for the war in Iraq, which has killed more than 100 British soldiers.

He generated a storm of controversy last weekend when he appeared on a British talk show and said God would judge his decision to go to war.

Elsewhere in the program, Blair - who is in his final term - reflected on Labor's election triumph in 1997, which now seems so long ago.

Said the prime minister, almost ruefully: "People used to like me then."

Susan Taylor Martin can be contacted at susan@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 12, 2006, 01:19:10]