Cook’s offer to oust minister draws ire

Reports said Lloyd appeared "extremely uncomfortable" when Cook made the `unusual’ statement. Labour backbenchers have warned that Lloyds’s position is "weakening", with one MP remarking "Tony Lloyd is dead".

Commenting that "Cook had hardly any credibility left", LabourParliamentarians were quoted as asking, "What is left of Cook after the latest scandal following earlier incidents including his marriage break-up, diplomatic fiasco in Middle-East and Indian subcontinent." Media reports claim that under Robin Cook it appears that there is an "ever-growing schism" between mandarins and the minister in the foreign office.

"It appears that at first sight of trouble, Cook has no hesitancy in blaming it on officials, be it his own created fiasco in Middle-East, Indian tour or anywhere," they said.

Cook and Lloyd’s blaming of the foreign office mandarins has led to what it called "witch-hunt" in the foreign office said The Times. "Outrageous allegations were made against named civil officials, who are prevented from speaking in their defence," it quoted some senior officials as saying. There is evidence of "growing resentment in the diplomatic corps at the way Cook and his junior minister are shifting the blame," the paper added. Media reports also alleged that one ofthe key players in the affair of breach of United Nations sanctions appears to be India-born Thai banker Rakesh Saxena. Reports claim the initial deal for mounting an operation to restore deposed President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah had been worked out by Saxena and Kabbah. Reports alleged Saxena had come forward to underwrite London-based company Sandline International’s arms shipment from Bulgaria via Nigeria to Liberia, where the Sandline chief had recruited his mercenaries.

Media reports claim he had recently been arrested in Vancouver for travelling on a Yugoslav passport issued in the name of a dead person.