BRITAIN: British culture secretary Tessa Jowell's dramatic marriage split has failed to quell speculation about her survival in cabinet as allegations and questions about her husband's financial affairs continue unabated.
And amid reports that Italian prosecutors could announce this week that they intend to prosecute Ms Jowell's husband, David Mills, for allegedly accepting a bribe from Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, former cabinet minister Frank Dobson warned British prime minister Tony Blair that things could yet go "from bad to worse" for the beleaguered minister.
Labour backbencher Lynne Jones also echoed growing alarm that the affair is damaging Labour after a torrent of fresh headlines claiming to link Mr Mills to corrupt land deals as well as to a man acting as an intermediary between Mr Berlusconi's political party and the Mafia, and that he made a £67,000 (€97,600) profit from buying shares in a pub chain while his wife was public health minister and the government was discussing relaxing the licensing laws.
Mr Mills denies receiving what he first considered a "gift" of £344,000 (€501,350) in return for giving helpful testimony in a 1997 corruption case against Mr Berlusconi. In a statement on Saturday, his solicitor, David Kirk, accused the Italian authorities of attempting to force Mr Mills into "making an admission" by way of media trial, and asserted his confidence about the outcome of any legal proceedings.
Mr Kirk also confirmed that Ms Jowell and her husband of 27 years had agreed to "a period of separation" because of the strain the controversy had placed on their relationship.
Mr Kirk said: "This whole business has imposed a dreadful strain on my client and his marriage. He fully accepts responsibility for these pressures and for the situation into which he put his wife, who he knows is entirely blameless in all of this. He is as mortified as she has been angered by the embarrassment he has caused her. They hope that over time their relationship can be restored but, given the current circumstances, they have agreed a period of separation."
According to several accounts, the "last straw" for Ms Jowell was a report that her corporate lawyer husband had sought licence to practise in Dubai by describing himself as the husband of a cabinet minister and claiming the support of the prime minister. However, cynicism as well as sympathy greeted the announcement that the couple would separate. Reports yesterday attributed to "friends" claimed the minister felt "betrayed" by her husband.
Ms Jowell won a reprieve last week after Mr Blair accepted her assertion to cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell that she knew nothing of the so-called "gift" made in 2000 until 2004, by which point her husband had agreed with the Inland Revenue it should be regarded as earnings on which tax was due.
Ms Jowell said she would have reported the "gift" to her permanent secretary had she known, and Mr Blair accepted that her declared lack of knowledge of her husband's financial affairs meant she had not been in breach of the ministerial code of conduct. Ms Jowell became embroiled in her husband's difficulties after claims that a second mortgage raised against the couple's London home, which she co-signed, had been a device used by Mr Mills to bring the alleged bribe into Britain.
Conservative MPs accused Downing Street and ministers of "spinning" Sir Gus's report as an exoneration of the minister, which it was not. And ministers were again on the defensive yesterday, forced to dismiss speculation that the marriage split might be a strategy to save Ms Jowell's cabinet position. Local government minister David Miliband said the idea that the separation had been staged by Downing Street adviser Alastair Campbell was "rubbish". He described as "grotesque" suggestions that the minister might have actually sacrificed her marriage for her career.
He told the BBC's Sunday AM programme: "Anyone who knows Tessa Jowell and her husband will know that they are a devoted couple with a family anyone would be proud of. One can only imagine the anguish they have been going through that has led them to the decision they took."
Baroness Margaret Jay, another close friend of Ms Jowell and Mr Mills, said the couple were "very, very miserable" about the separation.
"I think it's a devastating blow to them that the pressures they have both felt under over the last period of time meant they just feel now they must give each other some space - both the emotional kind of space and physical space - to try to resolve these problems separately," she told Sky's Sunday Live programme.
Ms Jowell is due to answer departmental questions in the Commons this afternoon, where she is assured of sympathy and support from many colleagues.
However, Mr Dobson - who said Ms Jowell had done an "enormous amount of good" and should not quit - said he was nonetheless "at a loss" about why Ms Jowell had not seen trouble in her husband's business dealings, which raised questions about her judgment.
Mr Dobson told GMTV there was a feeling that Ms Jowell's lifestyle was "so utterly at variance with most MPs, never mind voters" that it made it more difficult for the Labour Party to connect with the electorate.
However, in a swipe at Mr Blair, who once holidayed at one of Mr Berlusconi's homes, Mr Dobson noted: "[ Ms Jowell] had no direct relations with Berlusconi at all. The prime minister has."