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Sailors: heat is on Blair

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Opposition MPs on Wednesday turned the heat on Prime Minister Tony Blair for his role in what has been dubbed the "cash-for-stories'' scandal involving sailors who were allowed to sell their stories to the media when they returned home last week after being released by Iran.

The MPs demanded to know whether Mr. Blair was a party to the decision to permit the sailors to "auction'' their stories.

Downing Street refused to answer questions about Mr. Blair's role insisting that this was a "decision taken by the navy''.

After saying at the weekend that he was "informed'' of the decision but "did not give explicit approval,'' No. 10 went into a shell.

"This was a decision taken by the navy. What's now important is to look into the issues in the round. I'm not going to get into the process of who knew what when. We recognise this was a difficult decision taken by the navy and that there was no easy answer here,'' said a spokesperson.

Defence Secretary Des Browne, who banned further media deals involving freed hostages, continued to face calls to explain the logic behind the decision which led two sailors, Faye Turney and Arthur Batchelor, to sell their stories to newspapers and television.

The Government has been accused of damaging the "dignity'' and "morale'' of the armed forces .

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