[A-List] Brown man's burden

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/15/nlabour115.x
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The Telegraph

Mittal's £2m bails out Labour

Last Updated: 12:37am GMT 15/01/2007

Britain's richest man has pledged £2 million to the Labour Party to
save it from financial ruin after the cash-for-honours scandal, it was
disclosed today.

Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian-born billionaire, is to help the party pay
off controversial loans taken from businessmen before the last general
election.

Tony Blair and his chief fund-raiser, Lord Levy, who is on bail after
being arrested in the summer, are understood to have negotiated the
deal, according to The Sunday Times.

The Prime Minister had hoped to keep it quiet until May, when the
Electoral Commission discloses all donations received by political
parties in the first part of 2007, the paper claimed.

Mr Mittal's latest donation to the party could be contentious, given
that he was embroiled in a political scandal with the Prime Minister
back in 2002.

The scandal, dubbed Mittal-gate, came after the industrialist donated
£125,000 to the party.

It was later disclosed that Mr Blair had written a letter supporting
Mr Mittal in a Romanian business deal but both sides strongly denied
that there was any connection between the two events.

Mr Mittal, who has a net worth of £14.8 billion, also donated £2
million to the party in July 2005.

He was listed as the richest Indian and the fifth richest man in the
world in last year's Forbes List of Billionaires, and is the richest
person in the UK, according to The Sunday Times Rich List 2006.

He is currently chairman and chief executive of Arcelor Mittal, the
world's largest producer of low- and mid-grade steels.

The company has assets in Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa,
Poland, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the United States, Ukraine and Turkey
among other countries.

A Labour spokesman said: "Mr Mittal has been a committed supporter of
the party for many years, and a financial gift from one of the world's
most successful businessman is very welcome."




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