BBC gagged over political funding scandal

LONDON, Mar 3 (Reuters) The British Broadcasting Corporation has been stopped from broadcasting a story abouta political funding scandal that has cast a shadow over Prime Minister Tony Blair's final months, police said today.

The injunction against the BBC yesterday followed a police request over concerns disclosure of ''certain information at this stage would impede their enquiries''.

Blair, who is set to step down this year after a decade in power, has been questioned twice as a witness by detectives investigating whether political parties awarded state honours in return for loans.

Top government lawyer Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith obtained the injunction following the police request.

''The Attorney General acted in this regard completely independent of government and (in) his independent public interest capacity,'' the Metropolitan Police said in a joint statement with Goldsmith's Office.

The BBC had argued its reporting of the story was a matter of public interest.

Police began in March last year to probe claims that Blair's Labour Party and other political parties had nominated people for seats in parliament's upper house, the House of Lords, in return for party funding.

Lord Levy, Blair's top fundraiser and Middle East envoy, was arrested in January on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, signalling the inquiry had moved beyond the funding scandal. He was first arrested last year.

REUTERS SP SSC1610