[Iran Press TV] Britannia's shadow Chancellor Ed Balls says he was not part a plot to topple former Prime Minister Tony Blair after leaked private documents detailed Gordon Brown's ... the hapless former British PM ... accession to power.
The denial by Balls comes as the documents showed Brown had instructed him and the current Labour leader Ed Miliband to follow a line of action to ensure Blair is forced out of office and Brown takes over as his replacement.
The papers, which include memos written by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown and letters he received from Blair, were seen in Balls' office at the Department for Children, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The documents were reportedly gone missing when Balls was moving to his House of Commons office after Labour lost its grip on power last year.
The Cabinet Office has announced they are investigating to find out whether the papers have been "in the possession of any government department" and that whether there had been "ay breach of document secrecy within government".
"The last time I saw them was when they were on my desk in the department. I don't know how they were taken and got to the Telegraph," Balls said.
"The idea that there was a plot or a coup [by Brown supporters against Blair] is untrue and not justified by these papers," Balls said, describing such speculations as "false and mendacious".
Based on the documents, Balls was assigned by Brown to "hold things together" as the supporters of Blair and Brown were locked in an inner-party row to take power.
Balls, however, confirmed that the situation "could have been better handled".
"There are important lessons to learn, people want to know that the Labour Party has learned them. We have, 100%," Balls said.
The leak has led to comments by Conservative Party deputy chairman Michael Fallon who said the documents show Balls and Miliband cannot be trusted.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Gordon Brown's
