Guido has been tipped off that tonight Robert Peston* will flesh out details of the transactions between No. 10, Lord Levy, Ruth Turner and Gulaam Noon tonight on the BBC 10 O’Clock News. This is the nomination which was too much for the Lords Appointments Commission. The whole affair stinks and the smell isn’t curry.

The Beeb has been very wary about the whole Loans for Lordships saga, this signals that they are starting to realise that this corruption reaches into Downing Street.

UPDATE : Odd – in the version that was read over the phone to Guido, Ruth Turner was mentioned, in the broadcast she was not. She is mentioned in the online story.

Apologists for Sleazy Levy have been on to Guido to try to deny that any influence could have been bought by Lowy’s Westfield for his A$300,000 bung. The Olympic Delivery Authority was set up precisely to to prevent that kind of thing they claim. Overlooking the fact that the relevant planning permissions for Westfield’s retail mega-development were given prior to the setting up of the ODA.

As Guido’s co-conspirator Sero points out, the ODA is far from independent of Downing Street. The board is stuffed with Tony’s cronies, not least of whom is Baroness Morgan, formerly Sally Morgan, late of the Cabinet Office. Up until June last year she was Director of Government Relations, a job which involved closely liasing with Lord Levy. Her successor as Director of Government Relations, Ruth Turner, is already under investigation in the Loans for Lordships scandal as a result of her own dealings for and with, you guessed it, Lord Levy.

From 1995 to 2002 David Higgins was the Chief Executive of the Lend Lease group in his native Australia, a company in which Frank Lowy’s Westfield holds a major shareholding. In an amazing coincidence, David Higgins was appointed by Tessa Jowell last year to be the Chief Executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority.

So was it Lord Levy or the former Director of Government Relations, Baroness Morgan that invited the head of Westfield’s British operation, Peter Allen, to attend more than one Labour Party event at Downing Street?

Lord Levy claims that the A$300,000 was for him to “advise on the UK retail market, to flesh out the shape of that market and to identify business opportunities that might suit Westfield’s scale of operations”. So which large scale business opportunities did Lord Levy identify for Lowy’s Westfield if not the Olympic Village?

Levy was not quizzed on the real deal yesterday by the Constitutional Affairs Committee for fear of messing up the police inquiry into the affair if anything leaked out.

However some interesting information has reached Guido from Australia about Lord Levy and foreign cash. Aussie billionaire Frank Lowy’s Westfield Group has bought the company with the contract to build the 2012 Olympic Village in London. Buying out the 50% stake held by billionaire Iranian brothers (and foes of Ken Livingstone) David and Simon Reuben. Lowy also grabbed the 25% owned by the property group Stanhope, giving his Westfield 100% of Stratford City Development.

Guido understands that Lowy wants to build a mega 2 million sq ft shopping mall in the middle of the Olympic Village. This of course needed difficult to obtain planning permission consents from government ministers in various departments in what is a politically sensitive matter.

Guido is therefore curious about the A$300,000 retainer paid to the Sleazemaster General in 2002 by Lowy. Since Sleazy Levy has no particular experience in shopping malls, being merely a former manager of Alvin Stardust and Blair’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, what possible reason is there for the billionaire to pay A$300,000 to Lord Levy for advice?

Co-conspirators can help the Committee by suggesting suitable questions to be put to his Sleazeship in the comments below.

*Have you noticed the scandalous total blogging blackout from the likes of Recess Monkey and Bloggers4Labour? Downing Street is being investigated by the police, the Labour party’s chief fundraiser is set to face charges, the man with responsibility for their flagship Academy Schools policy has been arrested and what do they have to say? Not a thing.

The BBC is reporting that the Sleazemaster General himself will give evidence to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee on Thursday in closed session. Extraordinary. Guido is sure information will leak out…

You make this blog happen. Sources are anonymous (unless you want credit*). If you know “the line” is a lie, ask yourself why you got into politics; was it to cover up the truth or tell it?

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Guido wrote back in March that Jane Hogarth was being set-up to take blame for some of Levy’s Loans for Lordships shenanigans. Much safer if she takes the flack because she worked for the Labour party not Downing Street. At all costs the blame must be kept well away from Tony, although as we all know in reality it was his fund-raising operation run out of Downing Street.

Is it really so surprising that she has taken “voluntary” redundancy now?

Guido understands that the Labour party is due to repay some £3 million over the next 3 months. Will these supposedly commercial loans be rolled over or written off? We were assured when the story first broke that they were to be repaid on a commercial basis. Whatever happens we will find out now that the Electoral Commission has belatedly got tough on loans. Lord Sainsbury may yet again be called upon to prop up the party which he has supported to the tune of £15 million, not counting the money he gives to New Labour supporting groups.

It is going to be a long, hot sweaty summer for a lot of Labour party apparachtiks. Yates of the Yard is conducting interviews with witnesses and suspects. Guido has received mixed messages about the timing of any action, some say it will be before the party conference, some say after. It willl overshadow September’s conference deliberations. C’mon coppers, give us the perp walk…

N.B. The above image of a handcuffed Levy doing the “perp walk” is, Guido has been advised by media lawyers and concerned journalists, potentially defamatory. Guido thinks not. Sleazy Levy would have to be innocent with a good reputation to damage.

The Political Quiz Show to end careers begins soon. Nervous millionaires are consulting their solicitors and getting their stories straight. Theatre producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh is widely quoted as saying he was offered a peerage in return for a loan – he wisely turned down the opportunity. Yates is likely to add him to the list in his notebook.

Guido understands that interviews, under caution, will begin next week, tactfully after Thursday’s local elections. Rumour has it that one donor in particular may cough, if the right assurances are given.

Guido is lovin’ it.

Peter Oborne in the Spectator tells us of a tragedy that has befallen the Sleaze Master General:

…it emerges that the Marylebone offices of the New Labour treasurer, Lord Levy, have been devastated by a mysterious fire. This took place last November, well before the police investigation began and around the time the House of Lords Appointments Commission raised the first queries concerning Tony Blair’s list. When I rang Downing Street for a reassurance that no papers relevant to the police investigation had been destroyed, I was informed that ‘that is a matter for Lord Levy’.

What a tragic loss that must be for Lord Levy, no doubt losing important documents will complicate things for those trying to piece together his dealings. Guido thinks that the fire stinks, and that the smell isn’t smoke.