Clegg officials ordered to hand over key emails following pressure over his role in obtaining funding for charity linked to his wife Miriam
Nick Clegg was last night facing fresh pressure over his role in obtaining funding for a charity linked to his wife Miriam after the Liberal Democrat leader’s officials were ordered to hand over key emails to Britain’s data watchdog.
The demand by Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, means the Cabinet Office will be forced to release to him a pile of private correspondence relating to the £12 million Government grant received by Booktrust last year.
The Mail on Sunday revealed in December that the charity received the money after one of Mr Clegg’s aides lobbied for it.
This meant the grant could be given direct – rather than having to compete with other charities.
This newspaper then made a Freedom of Information request to the Government for the release of emails sent between officials relating to the deal.
But this was blocked by the Cabinet Office on the grounds that their publication would ‘prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs’.
It is understood that the emails show senior civil servants expressed concern about the way the bidding process had apparently been manipulated to benefit Booktrust, which gives away books to promote reading among children.
Sources in Mr Clegg’s Cabinet Office have claimed the aide, Matt Sanders, had referred in conversation to the fact Miriam Clegg had hosted a lavish function for Booktrust weeks earlier.
Mrs Clegg, who uses her professional name Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, hosted the event in October at one of London’s most grandiose venues, historic Lancaster House.
More... Education Secretary Michael Gove is heckled as headteachers pass vote of no confidence in his reforms The truth at last! Peter Mandelson admits Labour 'sent out search parties' to bring migrants here after losing the votes of the working class, writes RICHARD LITTLEJOHNAt the charity’s 20th anniversary party, Spanish-born Mrs Clegg said she fell in love with Britain through reading Enid Blyton’s stories and was keen to encourage her three sons to read.
She quoted Roald Dahl’s Oompa Loompa song, from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, ‘So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall.’
Lavish reception: As a prominent supporter of the charity, Miriam addressed Booktrust's 20th anniversary event in OctoberNow, after an appeal by The Mail on Sunday to Mr Graham, a £140,000- a-year former BBC employee who previously ran the Advertising Standards Authority, the Information Commissioner said: ‘I have written to the Cabinet Office and asked it to provide me with a copy of the [requested information] along with detailed submissions to support its position that this information is exempt from disclosure.’
Mr Clegg’s office maintains that the decision on Booktrust’s funding was taken ‘in an entirely proper way by the Secretary of State for Education’.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Booktrust, which has given away 40 million books to schoolchildren in the past 20 years. It has received Government grants since 2004.
