UK Labour Woos Muslim Vote with Mideast Mosque 'Donations'

Jack Straw helped to secure a £1.5m donation from the Emir of Qatar to a mosque in his Blackburn constituency. The justice secretary’s help in fixing the gift was used by the Labour party to woo the Muslim vote, it was claimed this weekend.

MPs, security experts and moderate Islamic leaders said Straw’s role raised serious concerns about the way some foreign states were trying to sway the religious views of British Muslims.

Straw wrote a letter of introduction to help his friend and political ally Lord Patel of Blackburn persuade the emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, to part with £1.5m.

The gift came after Straw, then leader of the Commons, accepted free first-class flights and accommodation for himself and his wife for a four-day trip to the desert kingdom in April 2007. He declared the Qatari hospitality in the MPs’ register of interests six months later (...)