LONDON, March 21: British police said on Tuesday they were investigating Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour party to find out whether it offered Lordships to wealthy businessmen in exchange for large loans of money. The move was the most dramatic twist yet in a row over party funding which has tarnished Mr Blair’s image and increased calls for him to resign.

“The Metropolitan Police Service has received three complaints about the Labour party under section 1 of the Honours Act 1925,” the police said in a statement. “These allegations are being investigated by the Specialist Crime Directorate.”

The act calls for a possible jail term for anyone who sells noble titles or accepts them for cash.

Police said one of the complainants was Angus MacNeil, a member of parliament with the Scottish National Party, but declined to name the other two.

Mr MacNeil approached the police after it emerged last week that four businessmen who loaned money to Labour had been nominated for Lordships, which come with lifetime seats in the upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords.

Labour has confirmed the nominations and the loans but says there is no link between the two. It says the men were nominated on merit, not because they loaned money to the party.

But revelations that the Labour party treasurer and some senior ministers did not know about the loans have added to the air of sleaze hanging over the government.

Right-leaning newspapers have been clamouring for Blair to resign for days and on Monday the Guardian, long seen as the institutional voice of the centre-left, joined the chorus.

On Tuesday, Home Secretary Charles Clarke defended Blair, saying the row would not force him to quit.

But he acknowledged the prime minister was weaker than in the past and might come under further pressure if Labour fare badly in local elections in May.

“There are whole chunks of the media that have the view that Tony should go,” he told reporters. “That is not the view of the Labour party ...”

—Reuters