Lord Levy's role in drafting honour list under scrutiny

London: The police inquiry into "cash for peerages" is focusing on Lord Levy's role in drafting an honours list made up of Labour-supporting businessmen, it has emerged.

Detectives are investigating whether Tony Blair's chief fundraiser in any way tried to pressurise Labour and Downing Street figures into playing down his own part in the process.

Lord Levy maintains that he had a purely advisory role and was simply asked for his opinion on potential donors. But No 10 aide Ruth Turner believes that his version of events is untrue.

As detectives prepare to wind up their inquiry, with a case file expected at the end of this month, Lord Levy's backers now claim that he is the victim of an "anti-Semitic" smear campaign. His rabbi declared that "one Jew is seemingly being hung out to dry".

Yitzchak Schochet said that the police investigation was "about politics" and suggested the Met was behind recent leaks on the case.

Police are furious at suggestions that they have released confidential details. Sources point out the only time that no information leaked out was when Blair was questioned a second time - an event which was known only to police.

Lord Levy has been accused of trying to "bully" Turner into changing her story on the cash for peerages allegations. Met's Special Investigations Unit is looking closely at a meeting attended by Lord Levy and Turner to draw up Labour's shortlist of nominations for the House of Lords.