By George Jones
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
LONDON — The collapse of the American energy
company Enron threatened yesterday to engulf Britain's Labor Party in a
"cash-for-access" scandal.
Opposition
politicians demanded an inquiry into the government's dealings with the failed
company and its auditors, Arthur Andersen.
A
spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair's office denied any impropriety,
insisting that a series of meetings between Enron executives and ministers since
Labor came to power had been part of the normal business of
government.
But Conservative Party and Liberal
Democratic Party members of Parliament claimed that Enron contributed about
$54,000 to the Labor Party around the time the government made key decisions
over energy policy, including the decision not to refer Enron's 1998 purchase of
Wessex Water to the Monopolies and Mergers
Commission.
Both moves benefited Enron. The
company filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 2, and the U.S. Justice Department opened a
criminal investigation.
The Labor government's
nervousness was demonstrated by its decision to make public a detailed list of
ministerial contacts with Enron.
Officials
began a concerted damage-limitation exercise to counter accusations that the
company's contributions had ensured privileged access to ministers. The Tories,
as the Conservatives are commonly known, claimed that the links between Labor
and Enron could dwarf the scandals that plagued the Tory government of Prime
Minister John Major.
A Labor spokesman said
Enron had made no formal donations to the party, although its European division
was understood to have contributed about $54,000 between 1997 and 2000 through
buying tables at Labor dinners and sponsoring a party conference reception in
1998.
Ralph Hodge, the former chairman of Enron
Europe, was quoted over the weekend as saying the firm felt it had to give money
to Labor to meet Cabinet
ministers.
"Sponsorship and donations are the
most efficient ways of getting access," he
said.
Tim Collins, the Conservative Party vice
chairman, said the decisions on Wessex Water and the lifting in 2000 of the
government's moratorium on building new gas-fired power stations were made after
Enron made what he termed "significant donations" to
Labor.
Mr. Collins told Radio 4's "World at
One" program: "It is a cash-for-access problem, and it is on a scale which
dwarfs some of the problems of past
administrations."
The Tories called for
separate investigations by Sir Richard Wilson, the Cabinet secretary, and the
committee on standards in public life.
Mr.
Collins said any inquiry should cover the role of Jonathan Powell, Mr. Blair's
chief of staff, in deciding who gained access to the prime minister, because
before he entered government he was involved in party
fund-raising.
David Davis, the Conservative
Party chairman, called on Mr. Blair to make clear how the decision to abandon a
moratorium on gas-fired power stations was made.
The moratorium was a Labor manifesto
commitment, but was dropped in November 2000 after two years. The government
insisted last night that at the time it had made clear it was only a temporary
curb, aimed at removing distortions in the energy
market.
However, documents released under the
U.S. Freedom of Information Act two years ago indicated that Mr. Blair had
intervened to water down the moratorium
proposals.
Matthew Taylor, the Liberal Democrat
Treasury spokesman, called for an inquiry by the House of Commons' public
administration committee into Labor's links with
Enron.
"We know that in the United States Enron
used extensive political contacts to seek to further its interests, and there is
good evidence of the same happening here," he said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020129-54070.htm
THE END
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