FORMER BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair personally intervened to help set up a deal that could allow the Qatari Royal Family to own 50 per cent of a landmark London hotel group, the High Court in London heard yesterday.
It was revealed Mr Blair had asked a Government minister in 2010 to lobby on behalf of property investor Paddy McKillen in his bid to stop the company’s £660 million debt falling under the control of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
Mr Blair personally persuaded the ruler of Qatar to contact Mr McKillen in his bid to gain control of the £1 billion hotel company, which owns Claridge’s, the Berkeley and the Connaught.
Shortly after the two “great friends” met in Doha, the Emir Sheikh Hamad asked his son Sheikh Jassim to contact Mr McKillen in London to arrange the deal, the High Court was told.
Mr Blair acted as a peace broker, after Mr McKillen and the Qataris fell out over a failed deal to buy the hotels a year ago.
Mr Blair and his company Tony Blair Associates then acted as an “honest broker” between the McKillen camp and the Qataris in a £70 million deal to take a controlling stake in Coroin. The deal will come to fruition if Mr McKillen wins his High Court battle with the billionaire Barclay twins.
Mr McKillen claims the brothers unlawfully denied him the opportunity to buy a crucial stake in the company.
The High Court in London was told Mr McKillen met Mr Blair at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos six years ago.
The pair rekindled their relationship through PR guru Matthew Freud in early 2010 when Mr McKillen and his hotel company Coroin’s £660 million debt was about to be moved into Nama.
Mr Blair was enlisted to “give advice” to stop the company’s debt falling into the Government’s agency. But in an explosive email sent by Tony Blair Associates executive Varun Chandra in January 2010, Mr Blair suggested sitting minister Lord Paul Myners lobby influential people in Ireland to stop the transfer.
Mr Chandra said: “As suggested earlier, Tony feels that his conveying any of these messages may not be worth the risk to Maybourne. However, if Lord Myners is able to take this forward, then Jonathan is more than happy to work with you on ensuring that they are communicated to the right people.”
In autumn 2011 a meeting was brokered by Tony Blair Associates with luxury French brand LVMH to discuss possible investment, but a deal never went through.
Mr McKillen also admitted wiping his outbox earlier this year of hundreds of messages, but denied they had any relation to the trial. Kenneth Maclean QC, for the Barclay brothers, claimed the developer had deleted the messages to keep his deal with the Qatari royal family quiet.
Mr Maclean said: “The reality is you are trying to hide your communications with the Qataris?”
The developer denied this and said there was “nothing to hide” in his deal with the Qatari Royal Family.
Earlier in the course of the long-running trial it had emerged one key Barclay brother executive had lost text messages due to a technical failure on his phone.
Mr McKillen told the court he had “concerns” the Barclays or their agents were hacking his Irish mobile phone.
Mr McKillen claimed the brothers had hired private detectives to follow him out of restaurants and had tried to find his American social security number. He said: “When I heard they had detectives and I know they had detectives following me to restaurants I got a UK phone because I knew they all knew my Irish phone and I was very worried about them hacking my phone.”
The hearing continues.
