[A-List] UK state: constitutional deform

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Ashcroft is a particularly dodgy character, but if his vanity is responsible
for hastening the demise of the House of Lords, then he can be regarded as
having made at least one useful contribution in his lifetime...


Tory peer's secrets challenge

David Hencke and Rob Evans
Wednesday June 4, 2003
The Guardian

Lord Ashcroft, the billionaire businessman and former Tory party treasurer,
will today challenge the government's centuries-old secrecy over the honours
system by asking a judge to order the release of confidential Whitehall
documents on his appointment to the House of Lords.

The controversial businessman believes he has been the subject of a vendetta
by the Foreign Office and Department for International Development - under
former ministers Robin Cook and Clare Short - to discredit him and try to
block his appointment twice as a working peer.

He is asking a judge to overturn a refusal by the Foreign Office to release
a series of documents, requested under the Data Protection Act, that refer
to his failed nomination for a peerage in 1999 and his later appointment in
2000.

The documents, whose existence is not denied by the Foreign Office, are
thought to include confidential assessments about his abilities by senior
civil servants which would have been circulated to the honours scrutiny
committee and the prime minister.

The Foreign Office is claiming an exemption under the act banning the
release of any files relating to honours, including peerages.

But lawyers for Lord Ashcroft will challenge this by - for the first time in
court - using the minutes of a Downing Street lobby briefing that
contradicts this view.

In it, the prime minister's official spokesman, who briefed lobby
journalists on this year's new years honours, told them: "Such peerages were
usually published separately ... this was because they were regarded as
appointments rather than honours."

If the court supports this interpretation, it would for the first time open
up to public scrutiny one of Whitehall's most closely guarded secrets: the
appointment of working peers by the prime minister, an area which has led to
accusations of cronyism.

The Guardian understands such a move is being viewed with consternation by
ministers.

Lord Ashcroft's interest in this issue is not just one involving "open
government". He plans to sue the FO and DFID for damages, claiming they are
responsible for leaks to the press which damaged his reputation. He has
fought the ministries in the courts to get them to release all their files
on him so he can discover who made the disclosures.

In 1999, Lord Ashcroft issued a libel writ against the Times, claiming £100m
damages for articles which he said implied he had been suspected of being
involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.

The case was settled before it came to court, with the newspaper declaring
there was no evidence that he had been "suspected of money laundering or
drug-related crimes".

The Times had obtained secret documents from the US Drug Enforcement
Administration, which featured Ashcroft's name. In January, a DEA analyst,
Jon Randel, was sentenced to one year in jail for selling the files to the
Times.