Timeline: Labour loans row
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk_politics/5174108.stm Version 0 of 1. Here is how the "cash for peerages" saga has emerged. 8 MARCH Chai Patel, head of the priory rehabilitation clinics, protests to the vetting committee for Lords' appointments that his nomination to be a peer has been blocked. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4785050.stm" class="bodl">Priory boss anger over peerage</a> 12 MARCH The BBC learns that Mr Patel lent Labour £1.5m. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4798064.stm" class="bodl">Labour nominee made £1.5m loan</a> 16 MARCH Labour's elected treasurer, Jack Dromey, says he did not know wealthy businessmen had lent money to the party and promises to investigate. He says it is wrong for Downing Street to think it can run the Labour Party. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4810670.stm" class="bodl">Labour loans to be investigated</a> 17 MARCH Labour confirms it was secretly lent £14m ahead of the 2005 election. The party, and the businessmen involved, deny any wrongdoing as loans to political parties made on commercial terms did not have to be disclosed. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4815552.stm" class="bodl">Labour was secretly lent £14m</a> 21 MARCH Scotland Yard says it is examining complaints that Labour has broken 1925 laws about selling honours. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4830018.stm" class="bodl">Clarke targets Labour treasurer</a> 24 MARCH It emerges that Labour's former general secretary, Matt Carter, wrote to wealthy businessmen telling them their loans would not have to be declared. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4839562.stm" class="bodl">Labour chief pledged loan secrecy</a> 27 MARCH Police ask a committee of MPs to put their inquiry into the "cash for peerages" claims on hold 29 MARCH Scotland Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates says his inquiry could be widened into the "arena of corruption" but it is too early to say. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4855918.stm" class="bodl">Police inquiry could be widened</a> 30 MARCH Police say their inquiry is looking at other political parties, not just Labour. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4861136.stm" class="bodl">Police probe becomes cross-party inquiry</a> 13 APRIL Des Smith, a head teacher involved in the government's city academics project, is arrested and bailed by the police investigating the "cash for peerages" complaints. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4906504.stm" class="bodl">Honours probe head teacher bailed</a> 18 APRIL Mr Smith says he will "vigorously" contest all allegations made about him. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4918388.stm" class="bodl">Head denies cash for honours claim</a> 21 APRIL Police say they are widening their inquiry to cover loans to political parties going back to 2001. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/4929458.stm" class="bodl">Cash for peerages probe widened</a> 28 APRIL Scotland Yard starts looking at claims that Labour offered the late independent MP, Peter Law, a peerage if he refused to stand at the last election. Labour says the allegation is "categorically untrue". <a href="/1/hi/wales/4954804.stm" class="bodl">Yard inquiry on MP peerage claim</a> 16 MAY The Lords' Appointments Committee, which vets nominations for peerages, says it has sometimes been kept in the dark about political loans. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/5104458.stm" class="bodl">Lords' watchdog 'kept in the dark'</a> 22 JUNE Lord Levy, Labour's chief fundraiser, is grilled by a committee of MPs looking at the party funding system. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/5104458.stm" class="bodl">Lord Levy faces MPs</a> 10 JULY The BBC learns that Lord Levy told curry tycoon Sir Gulam Noon he need not disclose his £250,000 loan to Labour on his nomination form for the House of Lords. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/5167140.stm" class="bodl">Labour fundraiser's advice revealed</a> 12 JULY Lord Levy is arrested and bailed by police in connection to the "cash for peerages" probe. Lord Levy says he has done nothing wrong and says the arrest powers were used "totally unnecessarily". <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/5173860.stm" class="bodl">Lord Levy arrested</a> 14 JULY It emerges that two ministers, Labour donor Lord Sainsbury and ex-party chairman Ian McCartney, have been questioned by police. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/5178730.stm" class="bodl">Ministers quizzed in donor inquiry</a> 16 JULY Prime Minister Tony Blair says nobody in the Labour Party has sold honours in return for financial backing to his knowledge. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/5184564.stm" class="bodl">Blair says no honours wrongdoing</a> 21 SEPTEMBER Biotech boss and Labour lender Sir Christopher Evans becomes the third person to be arrested in the "cash for peerages" probe. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/5365394.stm" class="bodl">Biotech boss 'shocked' by arrest</a> 29 SEPTEMBER Senior Downing Street adviser Ruth Turner is questioned by police as part of the ongoing probe. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/5391262.stm" class="bodl">Donor police quiz top Blair aide</a> 2 OCTOBER It emerges that police have questioned four Conservative donors, including a businessman whose nomination for a peerage was blocked. <a href="/1/hi/uk/5397856.stm" class="bodl">Peerage probe police quiz Tories</a> 23 OCTOBER Former Conservative leader Michael Howard says he had been interviewed at his home by police investigating the cash-for-honours allegations. He was not under caution and there was no suspicion of him having committed a crime, he says. <a href="/1/hi/uk_politics/6078788.stm" class="bodl">Howard quizzed in honours probe</a> |