Blair quizzed again in cash-for-honours probe

Tony Blair has been interviewed a third time by police over his role in the cash-for-honours affair, it has emerged.

But in what appears to have been an attempt to ensure the former Prime Minister's departure from office was untainted, the grilling by Metropolitan Police detectives was kept secret, according to the Daily Mail's sister paper, the Evening Standard.

As recently as Monday, the ex-premier's official spokesman Tom Kelly insisted Mr Blair had not been questioned again. When asked if there had been any contact with police, Mr Kelly said his answer of recent weeks remained unchanged.

It is understood that Mr Kelly has not been told about the third interview. When Mr Blair was quizzed previously, his official spokesman was deliberately kept out of the loop until after the event.

The Crown Prosecution Service recently asked the Met to re-examine aspects of its investigation and Mr Blair's third interview may be in connection with this. The CPS is expected to make its final decision on any charges in the case this summer. Mr Blair's chief fundraiser Lord Levy and former No 10 aide Ruth Turner have been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Police have been investigating claims Mr Blair nominated four businessmen for peerages after they made more than £5 million in secret loans to Labour.

Mr Blair became the first ever sitting Prime Minister to be quizzed by police when two officers from the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crime Directorate interviewed him in Downing Street last December. He was then questioned a second time in January, although a six-day news blackout was imposed.

The Standard has now learned from a senior source with knowledge of the investigation that Mr Blair has been questioned a third time in recent weeks. He was treated as a witness and not a suspect. Both Scotland Yard and No10 refused to comment today.

News of a third interview would have undermined Mr Blair's carefully choreographed departure from office of recent weeks. After his farewell speech six weeks ago, he went on to attend the G8 and EU summits to go out with his reputation as a world statesman intact.

Yesterday he was given a rude awakening during his first day as a plain citizen when his train from London to Darlington was late and his taxi - a humble Vauxhall Omega - was nowhere to be seen when he arrived at Darlington station. After a few anxious phone calls from his security team, the car eventually appeared.

It is also understood police investigating the cash-for-honours affair were told before the second interview that Mr Blair would have to quit earlier if he was quizzed as a suspect. The Metropolitan Police team of detectives received the stark warning from No10 in January as they were preparing to grill the Prime Minister under caution.

In the end, Mr Blair was questioned by police only as a witness and not a suspect, a fact Downing Street repeatedly emphasised at the time.

Senior sources close to the probe have told the Standard that the final decision on Mr Blair's status in the interview was not affected by the warning from No10 and officers simply "followed the evidenceî.

But claims that the police were issued with such a dramatic threat are sure to be seized on by critics as proof that No10 put undue pressure on the investigating officers by raising the prospect of a constitutional crisis.

The Met has long insisted that political considerations played no part in their deliberations.