DOWNING STREET is refusing to reveal whether the businessmen at the centre of the cash for honours scandal were invited to private dinners last year at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, writes Robert Winnett.

No 10 has repeatedly delayed publication of the list of those receiving hospitality at Chequers in 2006, covering the period since the scandal became public.

One Whitehall source claimed: “There is a lot of sensitivity about releasing this information. Most of the loaners were invited to Chequers and Lord Levy [Blair’s chief fundraiser] was in and out all the time. However, they may not all have been at official dinners.” Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP who used freedom of information laws to force No 10 to release previous guest lists, was told last August that the information for 2006 would be released “at the end of the year”.

He contacted No 10 in December to ask when he could expect the promised information. He was then told that there had been a “typological error” in the letter and the information would actually be released at the end of the financial year – which is April 5. The list for 2005 was released in January 2006.

Lamb is now being told that the information will be released in “due course”, sparking fears that it will be withheld until after Blair announces his resignation from office – widely expected to be in May.

Yesterday Lamb said: “I’m afraid Downing Street’s whole attitude leads me to think they have something to hide. It just encourages suspicion of their motives and they will be guilty until proven innocent.”

Downing Street declined to comment yesterday when asked if the businessmen involved in the cash for honours scandal had been to Chequers in the past year.

Blair’s choice of guests at Chequers has previously proved controversial. The prime minister held two dinners for Prince Girolamo Strozzi, an Italian nobleman, within a few weeks of enjoying holidays at his villa in Tuscany. Similarly, Alain Dominique Perrin, a French millionaire with close links to the tobacco industry, was also guest both before and after the Blairs holidayed at his French chateau.

Last week it emerged that the cash for honours investigation might continue until after the prime minister steps down from office. Any charges brought after Blair steps down would cause far less political damage.

The police investigation was launched a year ago after a series of reports in The Sunday Times revealing that Labour had accepted secret loans from businessmen who were later put forward for peerages. Whitehall sources believe that at least one of his inner circle will be charged.

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