Insider inquiry: Minister's brother charged

The brother of a Labour minister has become the first person to be charged with insider share dealing linked the Mirror City Slickers investigation.

Tim Blackstone, a City public relations consultant, will appear in court next month charged over dealings in Murray Financial, an Edinburgh company, which specialised in building society buyouts.

Mr Blackstone, whose sister Baroness Blackstone is an Arts minister in the House of Lords, insisted yesterday that he had done nothing wrong. Speaking from Spain where he is on holiday, Mr Blackstone said: "I am defending this action vigorously."

The development follows a lengthy investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry into dealings in shares tipped by business writers in The Mirror.

The newspaper's City Slicker columnists, James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul, wrote several articles about Murray Financial in 1999 when it launched a takeover bid for the Leek United building society.

News of the bid sent shares in Murray Financial almost doubling to 14p.

The Department of Trade and Industry was unable to confirm what charges had been brought.

Mr Blackstone, a former financial journalist, starred in soft-porn films during the 1970s.

His appearances in the films Emmanuelle in Soho and I Am Not Feeling Myself Tonight was publicised during a successful libel action against the Sunday Mirror two years ago.