Brown ally breaks ranks on Megrahi release

Ed Balls, Gordon Brown’s closest political ally, has criticised the decision to free the Lockerbie bomber, heightening government confusion on the issue and threatening to put strain on the relationship between London and Tripoli.

The schools secretary, told the BBC on Monday: “None of us wanted to see the release of al-Megrahi.”

Downing Street declined to say whether Mr Balls was reflecting official government thinking.

Mr Brown has been walking a political tightrope in the past two weeks, attempting to maintain relations with Libya while trying to assuage growing political pressure at home over Britain’s dealings with Col Muammer Gaddafi.

The prime minister has repeatedly refused to say whether he endorsed the decision by the Scottish government to release on compassionate grounds the terminally ill Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, whose bomb killed 270 people when a Pan-Am flight exploded over the town of Lockerbie in 1988.

It emerged last week that ministers had told the Libyans that neither Mr Brown nor David Miliband, the foreign secretary, wanted Mr Megrahi to die in jail, while stressing that a final decision on his release lay with the Scottish government.

Irritation in Tripoli over the British political response to the bomber’s release from a Scottish jail has been exacerbated by a new row over whether Libya should compensate the family of victims of the IRA killed by explosives supplied by Tripoli.

Mr Brown previously told the families that he believed it was wrong to pursue government-to-government negotiations with Tripoli over the compensation claims, a fact given prominence in the Sunday Times.

On Monday Downing Street said the government would “facilitate” meetings between the victims’ families and their lawyers and Libyan officials but would not negotiate on their behalf. No 10 denied any U-turn.

The Foreign Office is to set up a three-person team to offer legal and other support to the families, with two based in London, one in Tripoli.

Mr Balls said the government did not want to get directly involved because of the wider national interest in building good relations with Libya.

“To attempt to do so now would both not succeed and sour and damage a relationship which is not about economics or oil – it’s about working together to make sure people are safe from international terrorism.”

Saif al-Islam, Col Gaddafi’s son, said Libya would fight any claims in the courts. “Anybody can knock at our door and ask for money. But you go to the court. We have lawyers,” he told Sky News.

The release of Mr Megrahi has led to an uncomfortable public airing of the decisions taken by Tony Blair and later Mr Brown as they sought to build diplomatic and trade ties with a country that once posed a terrorist threat to the UK.