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White House Correspondent
Harrods boss Mohamed al-Fayed was a bully “used to getting his own way” the home secretary who rejected his application for citizenship has said.
Jack Straw also told The Independent Fayed was “absolutely furious” after the decision was taken to refuse him a British passport in 1999.
Fayed has been described as a “monster” whose case involves the “most horrific elements of … Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein” after five women alleged that they had been raped by the tycoon.
A number of others allege sexual misconduct against the businessman, who died last year at the age of 94.
A BBC documentary Al-Fayed: Predator At Harrods features more than 20 female former employees speaking out, while lawyers say the allegations against him include serial rape, attempted rape, sexual battery and sexual abuse of minors.
Mr Straw rejected the Egyptian businessman’s application for a passport during a long battle for UK citizenship, deciding that he had a “general defect in his character”. At the time a spokesman for the tycoon called the decision “perverse”.
Five years earlier he had told the Guardian, in what was dubbed the ‘cash for questions’ scandal, that two Conservative MPs, Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith, had been paid to ask parliamentary questions – at £2,000 a pop – on behalf of Harrods.
At the time he told the newspaper that he had been told: “You need to rent an MP just like you rent a London taxi.”
Former home secretary Jack Straw, who turned down his application for citizenship, told The Independent that he was a “bully” who was “used to getting his own way”. On the latest allegations, he said: “I’m always astonished by men harassing women in the way that he plainly has. I just think ‘what the hell goes on in people’s brains to do that’?”
He added: “What was clear, not least in his reaction to my turning down his application for citizenship, was that he was a bully and very used to getting his own way. That is why he was absolutely furious when I refused him citizenship.”
After the cash for questions affair Mr Smith apologised and stood down from parliament at the 1997 election. But Mr Hamilton, now the leader of Ukip, sued Mr Al Fayed for libel, which he lost, leading to a seven-figure legal bill and bankruptcy.
Mr Hamilton was later heavily criticised in a Commons report into the affair.
At the time Mr Straw said he was not satisfied that Fayed was of good character in part because of the scandal.