Prime Minister urged to act over Blair's oil firm links

GORDON Brown was urged to step in over Tony Blair's business interests yesterday following the latest disclosure of the former prime minister's links with a multinational oil giant.

It finally emerged this week that Mr Blair had been paid for advising UI Energy, a South Korean oil firm with extensive interests in the US and Iraq.

The details were released 20 months after he took on the work by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which vets jobs taken by ministers and senior officials within two years of leaving office.

The committee – chaired by former Conservative cabinet minister Ian Lang – said it had not previously published the information due to "market sensitivities".

It also disclosed Mr Blair had been acting as a "governance adviser" to the Kuwaiti government since June 2008 in a deal reportedly worth 1 million.

Mr Blair's spokesman was quoted as saying the agreement with UI Energy related to a "one-off piece of advice" and was not related to Iraq.

Although the committee cleared the appointments, Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker expressed concern that Mr Blair was in breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct, saying his

"pursuit of money … wholly compromises his position as a Middle East peace envoy".