ATTICUS

August 24^th 2002

Blair bungs his favourite bruvver a peerage

It’s the crony’s time to be tickled. Tony Blair is to bung a peerage the way of Sir Ken Jackson, whose Amicus-AEEU earlier bunged Labour a useful £1.8m a year.

Jackson, who lost the leadership of his union in a bitter election battle, was one of the few bruvvers Blair found sufficiently house-trained to invite to No 10. He should feel quite at home in ermine. Atticus learns that Blair is keen that Jackson, 65, should remain in public life. After all, he is that rare thing: a Blairite. After making him a working peer, Blair may even give him a ministerial posting.

Jackson helped promote single-union “sweetheart” deals to eradicate strife. So now the reward from Jackson’s true sweetheart. “It is understood Sir Ken will be given a peerage next summer,” discloses my source. “It has been made plain to him by the PM that he still has a career in public life.” Sweet.

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