Watergate taunts rile Blair as calls to quit grow

TONY Blair was under new pressure to quit yesterday as opposition politicians taunted him with the spectre of Watergate over the cash-for-peerages affair.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, compared the Prime Minister to the former US president Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign in 1974 after it emerged he had covered up his party's role in the Watergate burglary.

Hostilities climaxed during Prime Minister's Questions when David Cameron, the Conservative leader, told Mr Blair it was in the "national interest" for him to quit now. It was the first time Mr Cameron had called for his resignation in the Chamber.

Mr Salmond then taunted him over the police inquiry, that this week saw the re-arrest of Lord Levy, Mr Blair's personal fundraiser, on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Referring to that and the earlier arrest of Ruth Turner, his gatekeeper at No 10, Mr Salmond told the Prime Minister: "You are known for your close association with President George W Bush. But, given all that's befallen all of your men and women in recent days, is not now the more relevant association with President Richard Milhouse Nixon?"

David Howarth, a Liberal Democrat back-bencher, also had a go at the Prime Minister, asking if he feared incriminating himself if he spoke publicly about the controversy.

Mr Blair hit back: "You know, for perfectly obvious reasons, that there is nothing I can say on this subject."

The government remained bullish about Scotland Yard's investigation, and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, waded into the row when he was asked on BBC Scotland whether he feared there may have been some kind of cover-up in No 10.

He replied: "I believe when people see the full facts, then they will be satisfied."

Privately, ministers are accusing the Metropolitan Police of trying to catch officials on perverting the course of justice, rather than on the allegations, under the 1925 Honours Act, that peerages and honours had been given in exchange for cash.

The former carries a much heavier potential penalty.

Meanwhile, Cabinet ministers will today discuss the long-awaited white paper on Lords reform, to be published next week, which is expected to curtail the Prime Minister's powers of patronage.