SCOTLAND Yard has narrowed its
investigation into cash for peerages allegations to £14 million in
secret loans from a dozen rich benefactors to the Labour Party.
 The Times
has learnt that the eight-strong police team has requisitioned 1,000
papers relating to the transactions that helped to bankroll the Labour
election campaign. The police will hand over an initial report on their
inquiry to the Crown Prosecution Service in the autumn, raising the
possibility that charges may be brought.
Documents
have been sent to the police from Labour lenders and the Labour Party.
A number of other unconnected sources, including the Inland Revenue and
former employees of the Labour Party, have also offered documentation.
Whitehall
sources confirmed that Labour was now at the centre of the
investigation. “It is Labour’s loans that seem to be at the heart of
the issue,” one senior source said. “There are a number of documents
that have given the investigation an added significance. Everybody
knows that the Labour Party must be terrified. But now the police have
the evidence in its hands, it might be best to remain calm, and help
them as much as possible.”
The seriousness of the
inquiry was underlined yesterday when the influential Commons Public
Administration Committee surprisingly announced that it would suspend
its own separate hearings into whether peerages could be bought.
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