Flouting the Telegraph's Memory Hole

The article the Telegraph tried so hard to make disappear.

Cherie Blair steps down as a patron of Lady Meyer's charity

Cherie Blair steps down as a patron of Pact after figures showed the lion's share of its income was going to its employees
By Tim Walker
09 Jan 2012

Without any fanfare, Cherie Blair has stepped down as a patron of the charity Pact which is presided over by Lady Meyer, the wife of Sir Christopher Meyer, formerly Our Man in Washington.

Mrs Blair’s name is no longer on the list of patrons on the charity’s website and Catherine Meyer tells Mandrake: “There is no comment I wish to make about this”.

The former prime minister’s wife chose not to speak out in defence of Pact when Mandrake disclosed last year that all but £9,500 of the money received in donations by Pact, which stands for Parents & Abducted Children Together, was paid to Lady Meyer, who is the chief executive, and to one member of staff. The latest figures from the charity showed that Lady Meyer, who is also its president, and her employee were paid a total of £49,586. Lady Meyer received almost 70 per cent of that sum. Pact’s income from donations was £59,056 and it received a further £38,234 in grants.

The Meyers and the Blairs had enjoyed a close relationship, but it had become strained after the publication of DC Confidential, a memoir by Sir Christopher which was less than flatttering about Tony Blair’s government. Sir Christopher’s appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry, when he said that a year before the Iraq war Blair had “signed in blood” a deal with President Bush to overthrow Saddam Hussein — a charge that the former prime minister denied — led to a greater froideur.

“We are doing a huge amount of work for very little salary,” Lady Meyer said in response to my story last year. “I used to work in the City and earned much more.”

H/T Maren. Courtesy of http://themaddiecasefiles.com/topic17499.html

Original Telegraph article - the Wayback Macine.

Meyer now has its own tag. Please see previous posts for relevance.





Follow on

Cherie Blair is in no hurry to speak up for charity boss Lady Meyer

Cherie Blair, a patron of Lady Meyer's charity, Pact, has failed to make a public show of support after questions were raised about the charity's finances.

By Tim Walker
25 May 2011

When Mandrake disclosed that Lady Meyer faced searching questions about the finances of her charity, Pact, she might have expected its patron Cherie Blair to issue a fulsome statement in her support.

Fourteen days later, however, the wife of the former British ambassador to Washington Sir Christopher Meyer is still waiting for a public endorsement from her.

“Cherie is very proud of her charitable work and takes it very seriously,” says a friend of the wife of Tony Blair. “She wouldn’t dream of being paid by her own charity.”

As I reported, all but £9,500 of the money received in donations by Pact, which stands for Parents & Abducted Children Together, was paid to the Chanel-clad Catherine Meyer, who is the chief executive, and to one member of staff.

Lady Meyer, who is also its president, and her employee were paid a total of £49,586. Lady Meyer received almost 70 per cent of that sum. Pact’s income from donations was £59,056 and it received a further £38,234 in grants.

The previous year, Lady Meyer and the employee were paid £63,877, even though the income from donations was a mere £6,036. That year, the charity, of which Sir Christopher is a trustee and a member of the management committee, received £20,823 from the City Bridge Trust.

“We are doing a huge amount of work for very little salary,” she said. “I used to work in the City and earned much more.”

Her husband, and six of Pact’s 11 trustees, added in a letter: “We consider it to be at the low end of the pay scale for chief executives of charities with a demanding brief.

“She recommended reducing her salary in 2010 because of the difficulty of fund-raising in the harsh economic times.”

On Tuesday, Mrs Blair’s spokesman said she was still unavailable for comment.

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