On 16 November 1997, Tony Blair took the unusual step of apologising for his government’s handling of the “Ecclestone affair” in a broadcast interview. During his cross-examination, Blair appealed to the public to trust him and claimed to be a “pretty straight sort of guy”.

The scandal erupted just six months after Labour’s landslide victory at the 1997 general election, marking the first major test of Blair’s commitment to clean up politics. It centred on a £1 million donation made by Formula One (F1) boss Bernie Ecclestone to the Labour Party, and the government’s subsequent decision to propose an exemption for F1 from a planned European Union-wide ban on tobacco advertising.

Ecclestone, who had been a longstanding supporter of the Conservative Party, made his donation in January 1997. This was not made public at the time.

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Labour vowed in its 1997 election manifesto to “clean up politics” and reform “party funding to end sleaze”. This rhetoric sought to capitalise on the series of sleaze scandals that plagued John Major’s premiership from 1992 to 1997.

The manifesto also stated: “Smoking is the greatest single cause of preventable illness and premature death in the UK. We will therefore ban tobacco advertising.”

Blair’s party, restyled as New Labour, won 418 seats at the 1997 general election and a commons majority of 179 seats. The landslide represented a swing of 10.3 points from the Conservative to Labour.

Following the election, health secretary Frank Dobson reiterated that the new government would support the EU directive on tobacco advertising.

On 15 May, Dobson told MPs that the ban would “cover all forms of tobacco advertising including sponsorship”.

He added: “We recognise that some sports are heavily dependent on tobacco sponsorship and, as we do not want to harm those sports… but they must recognise that by helping to promote tobacco sales they are harming the health of many of their spectators and viewers.”

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Blair met with Ecclestone and the head of F1’s governing body, Max Mosley, at 10 Downing Street on 16 October 1997. They threatened that the sport would leave Britain and Europe if the ban was imposed, arguing that as many as 200,000 jobs could be lost.

On 5 November, the government announced proposals to exempt the sport from the ban.

On 10 November, the chancellor, Gordon Brown, told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he did not know whether Ecclestone had contributed to the party.

Later that day, Ecclestone said in a statement: “I met Mr Blair in July 1996 and was very impressed with him and his plans for our country. In January 1997, I was asked by a colleague to make a contribution to New Labour, which I did. I have never sought any favour from New Labour or any member of the government, nor has any been given.”

Labour subsequently admitted that the F1 boss had donated £1 million in January – but promised to return the money. This came on the advice of Sir Patrick Neill, chair of the committee on standards in public life.

This revelation sparked an immediate political firestorm.

On 12 November, speaking at prime minister’s questions, Blair produced his account of events.

He said: “I shall set out our position… with enthusiasm and relish. It was a collective decision, made in the normal way…

“The minister for public health [Tessa Jowell] met representatives of Formula One on 23 September… I met them on 16 October. No decisions were taken then…

“Finally, at the beginning of last week, there was the decision to seek a specific exemption for Formula One and then to seek a worldwide voluntary agreement so as to avoid grand prix in other countries being shown here without restriction.”

He added: “Once that route was chosen, I recognised that there was obviously an appearance of conflict of interest … [and] … we sought Sir Patrick Neill’s advice. He gave it; we followed it to the letter.”

On 13 November, Labour admitted that Ecclestone had approached the party with a view to making a further donation after the general election.

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Blair’s television appearance on the BBC’s On the Record programme on 16 November represented an attempt to draw a line under the affair. He apologised for the poor handling of the issue, but denied any wrongdoing or impropriety.

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Under interrogation from John Humphrys, Blair said he had been “hurt and upset” by what had been written about him.

He insisted: “I would never, ever, do something wrong or improper or change a policy because someone supported or donated money to the party. I didn’t in this case.”

He apologised for mishandling the dispute, with information having “dribbled out”. But he said that what “we got right was the way that we behaved”.

He said: “I had absolutely no intention whatever of changing the policy because of the interests of Bernie Ecclestone – plus the fact [at that point on 16 October] we had not decided that that was the route we were going to go down.”

Blair also provided a detailed account of his decision-making and motives in seeking Neill’s advice.

He said: “We were concerned to make sure that we didn’t end up in a situation where we lost Formula One. As for 16 October, we had the 20-minute meeting…

“When at the beginning of last week, it was eventually decided, and the minister wrote out to a European colleague, saying we actually want a specific exemption for Formula One, and this is in line with what many other countries do’ – at that point in time, and I want to emphasise this, I said, ‘Well, of course, we can’t accept any further donations for Mr Ecclestone’ – before any journalist had been in touch”.

He insisted that the focus of his letter to Neill was on whether Labour should pay back the pre-election donation – and did not amount to a request for guidance on a potential post-election one.

The prime minister also promised to disclose the names of donors going back to 1992 if the other parties would do the same.

Towards the end of the interview, Blair was asked whether he “had lost the trust of the British people” over the affair.

He responded: “No, I don’t believe that, and I hope that people know me well enough and realise the time of person I am, to realise that I would never do anything, either to harm the country…

“I think most people who have dealt with me think I am a pretty straight sort of guy, and I am.”

Blair’s interview did not succeed in suppressing the controversy.

In October 1998, Neill’s committee on standards in public life published a report into political party funding.

It found that the belief “that elections can only be won by the expenditure (mainly on advertising) of vast sums of money has given rise to something of an arms race.”

It added: “The result has been the well-publicised, very large donations to both main political parties and also the development of strategies – such as the fundraising dinner attended by senior party figures – which together give credibility to accusations that money buys access to politicians.”

The committee recommended the “full public disclosure of donations” of £5,000 or more nationally to political parties, and a ban on anonymous donations to political parties in excess of £50.

The proposals received cross-party support.

Jack Straw, the home secretary, responded that “public confidence in the political system demands that it is open, honest and transparent”.

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, passed by the Blair government, mandated political parties to report central donations of over £7,500 to the Electoral Commission on a quarterly basis.

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In September 2000, the controversy was reignited upon the publication of Servants of the People, a book authored by journalist Andrew Rawnsley, which accused Blair and Brown of lying to cover up details of the £1 million donation.

Rawnsley alleged that Blair had not, as he claimed in his On the Record interview, referred the issue of the donations to Lord Neill before a (Sunday Telegraph) journalist contacted Downing Street about the donation.

Both Blair and Brown vehemently denied the allegations.

Downing Street responded: “This is a second-rate mix of re-heated allegations.”

In 2008, a year after Blair left office, internal Downing Street briefing notes obtained under the Freedom of Information Act suggested that the decision to pursue the F1 exemption had, in fact, been made on 16 October – immediately following the meeting with Ecclestone.

It was found that on 17 October, Downing Street wrote to Tessa Jowell, the public health minister, stating: “The prime minister would like your ministers to look for ways of finding a permanent derogation for sport, in particular F1.”

It was alleged that this version of events – constructed by the letter and notes relating to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP John Maples – contradicted Blair’s original account to parliament.

Maples addressed the matter in the House of Commons.

He said: “Documents published this weekend under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 show that [MPs were] deliberately misled in the House in November 1997 by the then prime minister about the Ecclestone affair.”

He added: “The documents show that the prime minister had decided on 16 October of that year to seek a derogation for Formula 1 from the tobacco advertising ban…

“In answer to us, the former prime minister stated that no decision had been made on 16 October. In his [previous] answer to us, he stated that no decision had been made on 16 October.”

“The House must assert its right to truth from ministers.”

The commons speaker, Michael Martin, expressed concern “that two MPs have said they were deliberately misled.”

Martin told the MPs to write to him and said that he would ask his officials to investigate their letter.

A spokesman for Blair said: “There is nothing new here. All these issues were known and debated at the time, and the documents released are entirely consistent with his answers at the time.”

A report by the House of Commons public administration select committee into the practice of lobbying, published December 2009, found that there is “at least the perception of a problem, and the concern is one that extends beyond the media.”

It added: “The most prominent recent case of concern was the exemption for Formula One from the ban on tobacco advertising. Bernie Ecclestone, the head of Formula One, donated £1 million to the Labour Party before the general election in May 1997.

“Almost immediately after a meeting in October 1997 between Tony Blair, the then Labour prime minister, and Mr Ecclestone, instructions were issued to the Department of Health to seek an exemption for Formula One from the EU’s proposed ban on tobacco advertising.”

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Blair’s claim that he was a “pretty straight sort of guy” was regularly quoted back at him over the course of his premiership as New Labour acquired a reputation for ‘spin’.

In an April 2005 Newsnight interview, Jeremy Paxman put it to Blair that – in the wake of the war in Iraq – “you can’t any longer say, ‘Look at me. I’m a pretty straight kind of guy’?”.

In 2007, John Humphrys referred back to his interview with Blair a decade previously.

He told the prime minister: “We did a television interview and you said to me – and the quote has been used many, many times since then; you’ll know where I’m going – ‘people think I’m a pretty straight kind of guy’.

“They don’t think that now, do they?”

Blair responded: “Well, you know, I thought you might ask me that and I thought about how I should answer it and, actually, I had the same thing put to me during the course of the last election, when people were calling me a liar and a war criminal and so on…

“I said then, during the election campaign, and I would say now, I am not going to beg for my character in front of anyone.

“People can make up their mind about me, according to what they think about me, but I know what type of person I am.

“And I am not going to get into a situation where I am pleading for my integrity, not even actually in front of the public, even though I obviously have a deep respect for the British people and it has been an honour and a privilege to lead them.

“I try to do my best. I have tried to do my best over the last 10 years.

“I don’t say I have always got everything right – of course I haven’t. There have been mistakes and things that have gone wrong along the way, but actually when I look back on my 10 years, I do believe that there is a lot that has been good for the country as well.”

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The EU’s tobacco ban was ultimately declared unlawful by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on 5 October 2000, following appeals from the tobacco industry.

The government subsequently sought to fulfil its manifesto commitment with the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act, which received royal assent on 7 November 2002.

Under the act, the advertising of tobacco products to the public remains banned in the United Kingdom.

The act contained an exemption for Formula One and other “global sporting events”, which were allowed to continue tobacco sponsorship until 2006.