BRITAIN: Another British cabinet minister was yesterday drawn into the "cash for honours" affair dogging Tony Blair's government.
It emerged that local government minister David Miliband was named by Des Smith - the former government adviser arrested last week by Scotland Yard detectives - in a conversation with an undercover reporter.
The Sunday Times released hitherto unpublished details of their meeting in which Mr Smith suggested that a businessman could approach Mr Miliband with a view to securing a knighthood in return for sponsoring a city academy.
A spokeswoman for Mr Miliband flatly denied any suggestion that he had ever nominated anyone for an honour for backing an academy or any other form of government sponsorship.
Mr Smith, a former headmaster, quit his job helping to recruit sponsors for the academies earlier this year after he was recorded by a Sunday Times reporter suggesting that donors could get honours or peerages in return. He was questioned about those remarks by detectives investigating the whole "cash for honours" affair before being released on police bail.
The undercover reporter was purporting to represent a businessman - named as Malcolm - who was interested in sponsoring an academy.
In a fresh extract from their conversation published by the Sunday Times yesterday, Mr Smith said: "I'll introduce him [ Malcolm] to David Miliband and say 'Knighthood? This is the man'." Mr Smith was said to have referred to Mr Miliband, a former education minister, as "mate" during their conversations.
In another extract, Mr Smith said: "Miliband is going to be the next leader after Blair." The reporter replied: "Really?" Mr Smith then said: "Oh yeah."
Reporter: "So you think if Malcolm got involved with him, he'd probably recommend him for a knighthood as well?" Mr Smith: "I would say to Malcolm, 'Let's go for Miliband'."
Mr Miliband's spokeswoman said that there was no suggestion that the minister had behaved in any way improperly.
"There is not a single allegation of impropriety by David Miliband in the Sunday Times article," she said.
"Mr Miliband has made clear that he only met with Mr Smith on a small number of occasions. He did so in his capacity as an education minister and Des Smith in his capacity as a headmaster. Any suggestion that Mr Miliband has nominated anyone for an honour for sponsoring a city academy or for sponsoring any other government policy is completely without foundation," said the spokeswoman.
Downing Street brushed aside reports detectives were preparing to interview Mr Blair. Scotland Yard refused to comment on the reports.