New allegations emerge as 'hurt' Jowell leaves husband

Tessa Jowell has separated from her husband after the 'painful discovery' that he did not tell her the full facts about his controversial financial deals, friends of the cabinet minister said yesterday.

The Culture Secretary was said to be hurt and angry at what one friend described as an 'abuse of her trust' by her husband, David Mills. She discovered only through a Whitehall inquiry into her own conduct that her husband had omitted to tell her all the details about his work and the now infamous £350,000 present he received from an Italian businessman.

The couple, who have been married for almost 27 years and have two grown-up children, announced yesterday through Mills's solicitor, David Kirk, that they were separating after allegations over his business interests put their relationship under 'dreadful strain'.

The news comes as fresh details have emerged of profits made by Mills on shares in a pub chain while his wife was involved in a government review of the licensing laws.

Friends said the marriage had been rocky for some months as Italian investigating magistrates pursued allegations - denied by Mills - that he had received £350,000 from his former client, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, for giving testimony to a Milan court that helped the embattled leader.

Jowell was implicated when it emerged last week that she had co-signed for a mortgage on their family home, later paid off with money that had been channelled through a number of offshore accounts. Mills insists the money came from another Italian businessman.

She argues that her husband dealt with the family finances and she knew little about them. That defence, however, is weakened today by the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, Sir Alistair Graham, who told The Observer it was up to ministers to ensure their partners told them everything: 'I think it's about telling your spouse that "I have to comply with these provisions. Is there anything I need to know to make sure I'm fully complying with them?" That's what it is essentially about.'

It is understood Jowell was particularly angry over the publication last Thursday of a letter from her husband to the authorities in Dubai in which he argues that he should be allowed to practise law there and mentions that he is married to a cabinet minister and has the support of the Prime Minister. Jowell had apparently not known about the letter, which was crucial because it drew Tony Blair into the row, until its contents appeared in newspapers.

New facts are also understood to have come to light about the £350,000 gift only during last week's inquiry led by the Cabinet Secretary, Gus O'Donnell.

'New correspondence which she was unaware of would suggest that the information that he has given the legal process and her may not be inaccurate, but was not complete,' said a friend, adding that Jowell had subsequently become anxious there might be more to come out.

The friend said: 'She now knows how much she didn't know about these two or three things: what are the other things she doesn't know about?'

Jowell, 58, who is now staying with friends in the country, is said to be distraught. Her husband, 61, has apparently headed abroad.

Kirk said the couple hoped to mend the relationship 'over time' but went on to add: 'He (Mills) fully accepts responsibility for these pressures and for the situation into which he put his wife, who he knows is entirely blameless in all of this.

'He is as mortified as she is angered by the embarrassment he has caused her.'