Ecclestone’s Labour pains
The reason why Bernie Ecclestone will never be put forward for an honour is mapped out in the much-debated Alastair Campbell Diaries. Ecclestone transformed Formula One into one of Great Britain’s most successful sports, responsible for employing thousands, earning tens of millions of pounds for Britain and guaranteeing regular British success. His work for charity, too, is much admired.
But the huge impact of the cash-for-tobacco row that engulfed the early months of Tony Blair’s new Labour Government refuses to fade away and continues to ask questions of Gordon Brown, the new Prime Minister.
Ecclestone, Formula One’s controversial impresario, was convinced to donate £1 million to new Labour in early 1997 by Michael Levy (now Lord Levy of Mill Hill). But Blair’s decision to exempt Formula One from a ban on tobacco sponsorship caused a furore that was to become one of the first serious crises for the new Labour Government. Intriguingly, Campbell claims in his diaries to have discussed the issue with Brown on November 7, but three days later the Chancellor (as he was at the time) appeared on The Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 claiming that he had known nothing of Ecclestone’s donation.
Ecclestone, 76, who hates being drawn into the political limelight, is furious to this day about Labour’s botched cover-up, which may explain his lack of faith in any government pronouncements about helping to save the British Grand Prix.
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If Ecclestone knows where any political bodies are buried, we may know more soon, for a long-awaited biography of Formula One’s emperor is due on October 4. It is written by Susan Watkins, the wife of longstanding friend and former Formula One chief medic, Sid, and she has had unprecedented access.
Manchester a date to remember for Purnell
Gerry Sutcliffe, the new Sports Minister, managed to navigate his way around the banana skins during his first meeting with the press yesterday. Richard Caborn, his predecessor, famously took part in a radio quiz after his appointment in 2001 and got every question wrong.
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But just as Sutcliffe breathed a sigh of relief, in breezed the boss, James Purnell, the ultra-smooth new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and an infamously harsh critic of the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, which is now in his brief.
The journalists could not wait to ask when he changed his mind from believing that the Olympic bid was a waste of money to being a fervent supporter. Back came the reply that the wonderful Commonwealth Games in Manchester was the turning point. Except that the Manchester Games in 2002 were long before the bid, not after. London won the Games on July 6, 2005. Surely some mistake.
Owen Hargreaves said: “The better I get to know it, the more I love it,” regarding posters advertising tourism in Germany. He loved it so much that he spent months trying to get out, with a transfer from Bayern Munich to Manchester United. United should worry if he suddenly falls in love with Manchester.
E-mail: theinsider@thetimes.co.uk