Labour sleaze claims update

The Mail reports that:

"The Labour peer at the heart of the Lords sleaze row has secret links to Soviet Russia, a Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered.

The party faced calls for a new inquiry into Lord Truscott in the face of fresh information about his astonishing rise to power, which throws new light on the 'love at first sight' account of how he met his Russian wife Svetlana in the former Soviet Union.

At the time they married, Lady Truscott was an active member of the Communist Party and her father was a senior Red Army officer at a secret military institute connected to the Soviet equivalent of the SAS.

The Mail on Sunday has also obtained new details about the couple's private fortune, which includes a £1million home in Mayfair, a country home in Bath and property interests in Russia.

Meanwhile, Lord Truscott faces new questions about his political career, and the way he has used it to promote and defend Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the country in general.

This newspaper has been told that Lord Truscott was awarded his peerage by Tony Blair in 2004 after offering private advice on relations with Russia.

He chose a double-headed eagle identical to Russia's official emblem for his heraldic crest as Baron Truscott of St James, then joined Labour's defence team in the Lords before becoming a Minister.

Official records show how Lord Truscott used the Lords as a platform to defend Mr Putin after his decision to invade Georgia last year.

Last night, the 49-year-old peer refused to respond to the latest disclosures.

But Tory MP Patrick Mercer, an adviser to the Government on security matters, said: 'I would like some assurances that Lord Truscott's activities are wholly in the interests of Great Britain.

'Since Lord Truscott is not willing to address these matters it is incumbent on the Labour Party to do so.'"

Do read the whole article and wonder if the BBC will cover the allegations; you can sure they would be fron page news if it was a Conservative peer accused of such links.