Watchdog orders publication of former prime minister's payment by oil firm that was kept secret for 20 months
Tony Blair has received cash from a South Korean oil firm in a deal kept secret until the business appointments watchdog intervened, the Guardian has learned.
After 20 months of secrecy, the former prime minister has now been overruled by the chairman of the advisory committee on business appointments, the former Tory cabinet minister Ian Lang.
Lang this week ordered publication of Blair's deal with UI Energy Corporation, which has extensive oil interests in the US and in Iraq.
Blair repeatedly claimed to the committee, which assesses jobs taken up by former ministers, that the existence of the deal had to be kept secret at the request of the South Koreans, because of "market sensitivities".
According to a committee spokesman, Blair's claims of the need for secrecy were first made in July 2008, when the committee agreed to break its normal rules, and postpone publication for three months.
Blair's office went back to the committee in October of that year and asked for a further six months. They promised to let the committee know as soon as the "market sensitivity" had passed.
Committee sources said they heard nothing further and had to "chase" Blair. This culminated in a formal letter from the committee last November. Blair's office responded last month, claiming the deal was still too sensitive to reveal.
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