Fixer paid £5,000 by undercover journalist for meeting with Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham, claims report
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Version 0 of 1. An undercover journalist paid £5,000 to a fixer to help secure a meeting with Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham, The Sun newspaper has reported. The money, in £10 and £20 notes, was allegedly given to Faiz Ul Rasool, chairman of the Muslim Friends of Labour group, in the Playboy casino in Mayfair, London, and he then changed the cash into gambling chips. The Sun said it did not know if the money was given to Mr Burnham’s campaign, but added that Mr Rasool later invited the undercover reporter to meet the MP in central London on Monday this week. At that meeting, the British wife of the reporter, who was posing as a Dutch national based in Dubai, allegedly gave aides a cheque for £3,000 shortly before Mr Burnham was introduced to them. He was told the reporter was “helping the party financially” and was from Dubai. Mr Burnham said he was planning to visit the Emirate. “Yes, I’ve already said I will do that. I’ve never been, so I will. I’d like to. I really, really appreciate it,” he told the undercover journalist. Before Mr Burnham met the reporter, The Sun claims that Mr Rasool had said he would arrange a meeting for £5,000. “Give me £5,000 now and Monday I will arrange your meeting, and you are in now. Monday I am going to request a meeting and they will let me know when. Andy Burnham or [deputy Labour leader candidate and MP] Tom Watson. Anyone available, I will take you,” Mr Rasool said, according to The Sun. He added that Mr Burnham’s campaign was “short of £40,000”. “It’s not like you have to give it all but as much as you can. We’ll invite you to one dinner with the next Prime Minister and Labour leader,” he said. “He really needs money now. If he becomes leader and you give him a million he doesn’t know you.” Mr Rasool also claimed that Gordon Brown had “offered me a Lordship” in 2008. “I was going to be Development Minister in Gordon Brown’s cabinet,” he said. A spokesman for Mr Burnham’s campaign team said Mr Rasool was a “fantasist”. “A man, who turns out to be a fantasist, gave a legitimate donation but we rumbled The Sun’s fake donor and never even tried to cash his cheque,” he said. “Faiz Ul Rasool has had no role, formal or informal, within the Burnham campaign.” |