
As an example:
On Oct 30, 1994, Mr Blair said:
"I support the Prime Minister's establishment of the Nolan inquiry into standards of conduct in public life, but its remit is narrow.
In at least one crucial respect it is seriously flawed, as the funding of political parties is excluded from investigation. Yet this issue best symbolises the decline in standards in political life. This is not a partisan point. There is legitimate concern from all sections of the population that the governing party is being funded from undeclared sources of private and corporate wealth, much from overseas. The Conservatives' unwillingness to declare the names behind large donations is hard to justify. We would ensure that all donations above £5,000 had to be declared, and that corporate donations were subject to shareholders' approval. Of course, trades unions give money to the Labour Party and sponsor MPs. We must nail the lie that this is remotely equivalent. Money is given openly and declared in our accounts."
Now
Labour is embroiled in the so-called "loans for peerages" scandal, with Scotland Yard investigating whether the party sold honours or other favours, such as lucrative government contracts, in return for money. Tony Blair has admitted exploiting a loophole in the party funding rules he introduced after coming to power in 1997 to secure £14 million in "secret" loans to fund Labour's general election campaign last year. He then nominated for peerages four of the businessmen who made loans - but did not inform the independent House of Lords Appointments Commission of their financial link to the Labour Party.
(see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=TFKD0Y131IEHJQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2006/03/31/nblair131.xml&page=2 for the rest of the article)
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