Another Labour Libya link that the BBC will no doubt ignore

The Mail reports that:

'A former Labour Foreign Office minister severed links with a Libyan government-backed organisation yesterday – 24 hours after claims that she had appeared to praise Colonel Gaddafi’s ‘sound ideology’.

Baroness Symons, who was Tony Blair’s special envoy to the Middle East, declares she is a paid adviser to the National Economic Development Board of Libya in her House of Lords register of interests.

But the peer, who has accepted several lucrative roles with companies linked to the region since leaving influential government posts in the Foreign Office, Trade and Defence ministries, says she had now resigned.

The ex-minister also said she received no money for her work with the Libyan organisation, which was set up by Gaddafi’s son Saif – who last week vowed to ‘fight to the last bullet’ as the Libyan dictator’s troops fired on his own people.

...

The baroness said she had ‘never been paid’ for her work with the Libyans, explaining that she had officially listed her role as a member of the International Advisory Board to the development board as ‘remunerated employment’ in the Lords register just in case somebody in Tripoli did pay her.

...

Baroness Symons insisted yesterday: ‘It is quite clear that I am scornful of the point he was making. It is far from being any praise.’

The peer was at the centre of a conflict of interest row two years ago when she accepted a lucrative role with UK investment bank MerchantBridge, which has made millions from contracts in post-war Iraq, after she left government. The peer is married to Philip Bassett, a special adviser to Tony Blair in Downing Street.

She was also dragged into the row over the release of the Lockerbie bomber in 2009 when it emerged that she joined the National Economic Development Board of Libya shortly before the release of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.

She is a paid consultant for DLA Piper, the legal firm that employs Nick Clegg’s wife Miriam and which has advised the Libyan government.

And she lists on the Lords’ register that she is a paid international consultant to CCC UK, a subsidiary of a huge Palestinian-owned construction multinational with subsidiary firms not only across the Middle East but in Britain and America.'

I know it's hard to keep up with but so far we have Labour links to Gaddafi's Libya via Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, Ed Miliband (via David Held) and Baroness Symons. Oh and a link to Nick Clegg via his wife and DLA Piper. If this story involved Conservative politicians then the BBC would be leading with it and Michael Crick would be on the doorsteps, however as it concerns Labour politicians not a bloody word.