The Madeleine Foundation letter to Gordon Brown in support of a

d) It has been publicly disclosed that you discussed the Madeleine McCann
case with the President of the European Parliament, Jose Manuel de Barroso,
and with the Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, during discussions at
the E.U. Lisbon summit in October 2007; however, the content of those
discussions remains secret. Given that these discussions concerned a still
missing 3-year-old British child whose parents were at that time suspected of
criminal involvement in her ‘disappearance’, and about whom there has been
no inquest or other enquiry or court hearing, we suggest that this too should
form part of any enquiry as to whether you and other members of the British
government and British police forces sought in any way to attempt to affect
the outcome of the Portuguese police enquiry into Madeleine’s
‘disappearance’. The contents of your discussions about a three-year-old
missing British girl should not remain secret, but should be disclosed to any
public enquiry.
One aspect of your significant involvement in the Madeleine McCann case
during May 2007 was discussed with us by Dennis Skinner M.P., who ’phoned
me in March 2009 in response to a letter sent to him enclosing a copy of my
book on the Madeleine McCann case. He pointed out, with some force, that it
was not part of your role as Chancellor of the Exchequer to be discussing the
release of a description of a possible abductor with the Portuguese authorities.
He explained that this role was firmly that of the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office. He told us that if it could be demonstrated that you did indeed play an
active role in securing the permission of the Portuguese police for Dr Gerald
McCann to issue that description, there would be grounds for an enquiry as to
why you stepped out of your role as Chancellor of the Exchequer and
trespassed on matters clearly belonging to the Foreign Office.
Further, the extent of government involvement in supporting the McCanns
and their claim of abduction seems to have been wholly unprecedented.
Aspects of that high degree of involvement which we suggest should be
examined by an independent public enquiry include:
i) The rapid provision of consular assistance
Within just two hours of Madeleine ‘disappearing’, the following report
appeared in the online edition of the Daily Telegraph, timed at 00.01 (one
minute past midnight) on Friday 4 th May 2007:
“A three-year-old British girl has gone missing while on a family holiday in
Portugal, the Foreign Office said today. Portuguese police are investigating
the disappearance from a holiday complex in Praia da Luz in the western
Algarve. A Foreign Office spokesman said that he understood the girl's
parents had gone to have dinner once their children were asleep last night,
but returned to check on them only to find the girl had gone missing. ‘They
reported it straight away’, he said, adding that consular assistance was
being offered”.
Not only was the British Ambassador in Portugal already involved. Even
before midnight on 3/4 May, the matter was already in the hands of the
Foreign Office - and Foreign Office spokesmen were on hand to brief the Daily
Telegraph. The British government therefore appeared committed to
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