TONY BLAIR was given full details of the police file on Ron Davies the day the former Welsh Secretary resigned after an incident on Clapham Common.

Downing Street has now confirmed that the Prime Minister was told last Tuesday about all the evidence that had been gathered by Brixton police during interviews with the MP and other inquiries.

It is understood that Sir Richard Wilson, the Cabinet Secretary, informed Mr Blair of the conflicting stories given by Mr Davies, and the suspicions that gay sex had been involved and that the robbers tried to blackmail the minister. Sir Richard was instructed to find out what had been going on.

The admission throws further question marks over Downing Street's insistence that neither sex nor drugs had been involved and that it had disclosed all the "salient facts" in its possession. It has already emerged that Scotland Yard's Deputy Commissioner, John Stevens, spoke to Downing Street on Tuesday, before Mr Blair's meeting with Mr Davies.

However, a spokesman stressed that police suspicions would not count as "facts" in Downing Street's view. The Prime Minister "was shown the crime report and he said that it did not add any salient facts to the account Ron had given".