BRITAIN: British culture secretary Tessa Jowell faced the first Labour demand for her resignation last night, despite being cleared of breaching the ministerial code of conduct and winning prime minister Tony Blair's declaration of "full confidence".
Having offered only guarded support as controversy mounted over Ms Jowell's husband's complex financial affairs, Mr Blair gave the minister his backing when cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell cleared her of breaching the ministerial code of conduct - after accepting she did not know about a £344,000 (€602,750) "gift" her husband had received and which the code would have required her to declare.
Ms Jowell told Sir Gus she knew nothing of the existence of this money until four years after her lawyer husband, David Mills, received it, by which point he had agreed with the Inland Revenue that it should be regarded as income rather than "a gift".
Ms Jowell said: "I first became aware in August 2004 that my husband had received in September 2000 a sum of money which he thought he had reasonable grounds to believe was a gift. By the time I became aware of it, he had already agreed with the Revenue that it should be classified as earnings on which tax was paid. . . I fully accept my husband should have informed me, and if he had, I would, of course, have reported it to my permanent secretary."
MP and former minister Peter Kilfoyle became the first to voice Labour disquiet publicly, saying in a television interview: "I think she's reached a point where she's got to consider resignation, frankly."
Mr Mills denies receiving the money as "a bribe" from Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in return for favourable testimony in a 1997 corruption investigation.