Tony Blair, not such a straight guy after all

The truth about Tony Blair's actions during the notorious Ecclestone Affair in 1997 - the then Prime Minister excluded Formula One motor-racing from a ban on tobacco advertising in sport, an exemption that he was later forced to withdraw - has been revealed.

At the time the Government insisted that the decision to allow Formula One to keep its highly lucrative tobacco advertising was not, as was claimed by some, made by Blair following a meeting with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone on October 16, 1997. They insisted it was a joint decision made with the Department of Health at a later date.

However, documents released to the Sunday Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Blair did personally intervene after the October 16 meeting. The previously secret papers show that Blair actually ordered ministers to find ways to implement Formula One's exclusion within hours of the meeting with Ecclestone.

The ex-PM instructed his Chief of Staff, Jonathan Powell, to inform Tessa Jowell, then the public health minister, of his decision. The following day, Jowell duly received a note from Downing Street saying: "The Prime Minister would like your ministers to look for ways of finding a permanent derogation for sport in particular, F1."

When the story was first aired, Blair memorably appeared on the BBC current affairs programme On The Record to defend the exemption, famously insisting he was "a pretty straight sort of guy". This didn't satisfy everyone and when it later emerged that Ecclestone had donated £1m (which was subsequently handed back) to the Labour Party months before, there were calls for his resignation.

A spokesman for Blair said on Sunday: "There is nothing new here. All these issues were debated at the time." But the revelation casts doubt on the entire version of events given by Downing Street when the story first broke. ·