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Lord Sainsbury quits! (10/11/2006)

1.Labour's top donor quits as minister
2.Lord Sainsbury to resign

GM WATCH COMMENT: Although unelected, Lord Sainsbury has been Science Minister in Tony Blair's government since 1998 from where he has made a huge contribution to the corporate take over of science in the UK.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=116

A GM enthusiast with biotech business interests, he has also been a member of the cabinet biotechnology committee, Sci-Bio, responsible for national policy on GM crops and foods, and as such has been a key adviser to Blair on GM technology.

He has also been a key donor to Blair's Party. Mark Seddon, a member of Labour's National Executive Committee, memorably told the BBC, "In any other country I think a government minister donating such vast amounts of money and effectively buying a political party would be seen for what it is, a form of corruption of the political process."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=116
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/sainsburyupdate.htm

It will bevery interesting to see who his replacemnt is. There has been speculation in the past that Lord Drayson - another big Labour donor and biotech entrepreneur, as well as the former head of the BioIndustry Association - was being groomed for the post.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5220

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1.Labour's top donor quits as minister
The Evening Standard (incorporating ThisisLondon.co.uk), 10 November 2006
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23374036-details/Labour's+top+donor+quits+as+minister/article.do

[image caption: Quit - Lord Sainsbury was Labour's biggest donor.]

Lord Sainsbury dramatically quit as science minister today.

Whitehall sources claimed Labour's biggest donor was tired of being tainted in the cash-for-peerages affair.

One source said: "He was fed up with his name being dragged through the mud whenever cash for honours came up. Every time there was a controversy about party funding he was put at the centre of it and eventually he had had enough."

The supermarket millionaire, pictured, has bankrolled the party to the tune of GBP7million. His departure casts a new shadow over Downing Street with Tony Blair increasingly isolated in the police investigation into the alleged sale of peerages to party backers.

Lord Sainsbury championed controversial causes such as GM technology and was one of the longest-serving junior ministers. Other sources suggested that Lord Sainsbury's departure was part of the exodus of Blair allies from the Government and No10 in advance of the Prime Minister's own retirement.

A No 10 source said: "This is not a sudden thing at all but something that has been planned and talked about for quite a long time.

"This was a retirement not a resignation. At 66 he wanted to pursue charitable and business work. Lord Sainsbury has other things he would like to do."

He is expected to be given responsibility for a government-commissioned review of scientific challenges to the country. But critics are bound to say that the peer has already enjoyed more influence than most ministers ever get over a single subject.

Mr Blair was one of only two Cabinet ministers who knew about secret loans in the cash for honours affair, it was claimed today.

The only other minister with prior knowledge of the GBP5million from businessmen was former party chairman Ian McCartney, sources close to the police probe said.

The latest twist in the saga risks leaving the Prime Minister isolated as the Metropolitan Police prepare to quiz him over the allegations.

Mr McCartney, now Trade Minister, signed certificates nominating the four businessmen for peerages.

He claims he did not know they were lenders at the time. But a police inquiry source said today: "Only two ministers knew when a system of secret loans was set up. One was Ian McCartney, who gave party authority. The other was Tony Blair."

Mr Blair has said that he takes "full responsibility" for Labour's decisions, but insisted he did not nominate peers in return for loans.

But investigators want to know whether the deals were used to circumvent a 2000 Act of Parliament requiring all donations of more than GBP5,000 to be made public. The Government has since changed the rules to ensure all loans are also fully declared.
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2.Lord Sainsbury to resign
By Graeme Wilson, Political Correspondent Telegraph, 10 November 2006
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/10/usainsbury110.xml

Lord Sainsbury, the science minister and Labour's biggest donor, will resign from the government today, the Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Downing Street is preparing to announce the supermarket billionaire's shock resignation within the next hour.

His timing of the announcement will trigger speculation at Westminster that his departure has been driven by the cash-for-peerages scandal.

Lord Sainsbury was the first minister to be questioned by the police about the GBP2 million loan he made to the party last year.

He was also forced to apologise for "unintentionally" misleading the public after he said he had declared his loan.

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