Gordon Brown under pressure to disclose details of trade deals negotiated with Gaddafi as controversy over freeing of Lockerbie bomber continues A woman looks at the main headstone in the Lockerbie disaster memorial garden at Dryfesdale cemetery in Lockerbie. Photograph: David Moir/Reuters The pressure on Gordon Brown to disclose details of trade deals negotiated with Libya increased today when it emerged that three ministers visited the country in the 15 months leading up to the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Digby Jones, the then trade minister, travelled to Libya last May to speak to business representatives, the Cabinet Office confirmed. The former health minister Dawn Primarolo conducted talks with the Libyan prime minister last November, and Bill Rammell, the then Foreign Office minister, held discussions with his Libyan counterparts in February. Alan Johnson, the home secretary, also met Libyan health ministers at the World Health Assembly in Geneva last year during his time as health secretary. The Libyan contacts – detailed in a ministerial statement released on 16 July and relating to all ministers' overseas travel – will fuel the row over the freeing of the terminally-ill , Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. Earlier this week, opposition parties said ministers had "serious questions" to answer after Saif Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, claimed the decision to release Megrahi was tied to a trade deal. The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, dismissed the suggestion that Megrahi's case was on the table during talks as "offensive". Brown has come under fire for his silence on whether he agreed with the decision of the Scottish justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, to release the man convicted of the 1988 bombing on compassionate grounds. The former deputy prime minister John Prescott yesterday became the first senior Labour figure to back MacAskill's decision. Asked in a Sky News interview whether he had any objection to the decision to release Megrahi, Prescott said: "No, I don't have any objection. "If the man is dying, if compassion is passed, as it is in the Scottish administration, and the medical authorities then gave proof to that effect as they did, then it's a decision for their legal authority. "You know Scotland has always had a great deal more independence in its legal authority, going back many years, so we have to respect that decision, and I do." His comments were seized on by the Scottish National party – which contrasted them with the stance of Labour in Scotland – and by the Tories, who said Brown should give his views on the release. The decision has led 70% majority of Scots to believe the country's reputation abroad has suffered as a result of the decision, according to a YouGov poll for the Mail. Almost one-third of Scots want MacAskill to resign over the matter. The poll also found support for Scottish independence had fallen in the wake of the furore over Megrahi's release. The survey of 1,078 Scottish adults found that only 28% backed independence, down eight points in a year. Commenting on the polling, Scotland's deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "The justice secretary had to make a decision about Mr al-Megrahi. "He had the courage to make the right decision for the right reasons, which attracts very substantial support in this poll. "It will gather further support on that basis, because people recognise that Mr MacAskill upheld the due process of Scots law in difficult circumstances." The justice secretary, Jack Straw, yesterday questioned whether MacAskill should have visited Megrahi in jail before coming to a decision. "That was his decision," Straw said. "If you are asking me if I have ever visited a prisoner in jail who has applied for compassionate release, the answer to that is no."UK ministers visited Libya in months before Megrahi's release
Friday, 28 August 2009
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