LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed confidence on Tuesday in Culture Minister Tessa Jowell as she fights allegations she helped her husband bring a bribe from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi into the country.

Jowell, one of Blair’s closest allies, and her husband, corporate lawyer David Mills, have denied any wrongdoing.

Britain’s top civil servant, prompted by the opposition Conservatives, is investigating if she broke ministerial rules. Berlusconi has denounced judicial investigations against him as politically motivated ahead of an Italian election on April 9. He insists he is innocent.

British media said this week Jowell had signed documents with her husband to remortgage their home and alleged that this was one leg of an elaborate financial scheme to bring a payment from Italy onshore.

Many commentators thought Blair’s initial declarations of support for Jowell sounded lukewarm. But asked on Tuesday if the prime minister had full confidence in the minister, his official spokesman said: “I said yes to that yesterday.

“Somehow or other my yes yesterday came across in some papers almost as if I’d said no or maybe. I meant yes and I still say yes,” he said.

Pressure on Jowell increased at the weekend when the Sunday Times reported she had signed a document in 2000 allowing her husband to get a loan secured on their London home.

The newspaper said the loan was repaid with $600,000 which Italian prosecutors allege Berlusconi placed in an offshore hedge fund to reward Mills for testifying in favour of him at a corruption trial.

Jowell has acknowledged helping Mills take out the loan but they both deny Berlusconi provided the money to repay it.

Berlusconi is one of the world’s most powerful media barons.—Reuters