The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, yesterday apologised for his government's handling of the Formula One affair. He said he had been "hurt and upset" by suggestions that the decision to exempt Formula One from the proposed ban on tobacco sponsorship in sport might have been influenced by the party's receipt of a £1 million donation from the Formula One chief, Mr Bernie Ecclestone.
But the Prime Minister's apology extended only to Labour's handling of the issue after the public controversy surfaced, with an admitted lack of focus and an acknowledgment that the way in which information about the party's relationship with Mr Ecclestone had "dribbled out" had been unsatisfactory.
Specifically, Mr Blair defended the Formula One exemption, and his much-criticised decision to meet Mr Ecclestone to discuss the issue on October 16th. He denied misleading the House of Commons last Wednesday by failing to tell MPs that Labour fund-raisers had been in negotiations about a possible second donation.
Appearing live on the BBC's On The Record, Mr Blair said the affair had not been handled well: "For that I take full responsibility and I apologise for that. I suppose what I would say is that perhaps I didn't focus on this and the seriousness of it in the way I should, as I was focusing on other issues. And in part - which is why I feel in one sense hurt and upset by what has been written about this - I would never, ever do something wrong or improper or change a policy because someone supported or donated to the Labour Party.
"I didn't in this case. I couldn't understand that anyone would impugn my motives in taking the decisions that I did. I guess we should learn the lesson of that, and when something like this happens again you deal with it quicker and in a better way, and we should have done that."
But Mr Blair added: "I'm not saying it was wrong to have accepted money from Bernie Ecclestone. I'm not saying it was wrong to meet Bernie Ecclestone." On the contrary, he said, it would have been "odd" to refuse to meet him because of his previous donation, particularly after Mr Ecclestone had seen other heads of government on the issue. The point, Mr Blair stressed, was that at the time of the meeting the government was considering a number of options: "The issue of the appearance of a conflict of interest only arose when we decided not to treat all sports the same but to exempt Formula One."
At that point Mr Blair said the government sought the advice of the standards watchdog, Sir Patrick Neill. Mr Blair had also decided, on November 5th, that in light of the decision there could be no question of the party accepting any further donations from Mr Ecclestone - something Mr Blair said he understood Mr Ecclestone had been committed to.
Of his failure to mention the possibility of a further donation to MPs on Wednesday, Mr Blair said: "My whole focus was on the original donation. Though we thought there had been a firm commitment to further donations back in May . . . no money has been received or paid over, and I had then rescinded, as it were, the offer, so it couldn't possibly have any impact . . . I didn't consider that important at the time because we had not received any money and had already rescinded any commitment for more money. I thought: here we are, turning away further donations, so I don't think that's the problem. Surely the problem is what happens with the original gift."