John Major/Blair UK's 'sleaziest' government

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair is ruling the country's sleaziest ever government, his predecessor John Major said in a television interview to be broadcast today. Former Conservative Party leader Major, who lost the 1997 general election to Blair's Labour Party, made his comments after work and pensions secretary David Blunkett resigned last week amid a row over his private business dealings.

In an interview with the independent British television channel ITV, Major claimed that Blair's Labour had shown "hypocrisy" after having "dishonestly" accused his own government of sleaze. "This government has not only had more of what loosely one might call 'sleaze' than the previous government, or any previous government, it actually has been much closer to the prime minister," Major said.

He added: "I'm not smugly grinning to myself saying 'Good, they're
in trouble'. "But I think it does point out the hypocrisy of what they
said at the time: 'purer than pure', 'whiter than white', 'tough on sleaze; tough on the causes of sleaze'." Major said that such sound-bites from Labour before the 1997 election were "used with great effect, but actually unscrupulously and dishonestly against the Conservative party... (and) have come back to hit them pretty savagely."

Blunkett, a key political ally of Blair, abruptly resigned last Wednesday. It was the second time in less than a year that the 58-year-old had quit Blair's cabinet, after being forced to resign last December as Home Secretary after he facilitated a visa for the nanny of his mistress. Blunkett's latest departure came amid a furore over his links to a technology firm in a position to bid for government contracts overseen by his department. Major's seven-year tenure at Downing Street was considered to have been severely weakened by a number of high-profile resignations, including over sex scandals and allegations of personal impropriety.