Tony Blair nominated former Labour MP Greville Janner for a peerage despite being aware of child sexual abuse claims against him, an inquiry heard yesterday.
The ex-prime minister said he did not consider the allegations a reason to bar his appointment. Lord Janner’s elevation to the House of Lords in 1997 following Labour’s landslide election victory came six years after he was publicly accused of child sex abuse in a high-profile court case.
Mr Blair, 67, said he ‘would have known’ about the claims. But he added that Lord Janner, an MP in Leicester from 1970 to 1997, had issued a ‘vigorous public denial’ and had not been charged.  Â
