Honours probe costs hit £750,000

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The sum, which includes staff salaries, overtime, equipment and expenses, was disclosed by police following a Freedom of Information request by the Press Association.

The figure emerged as three of the suspects in the investigation - Labour's chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, Downing Street aide Ruth Turner and businessman Sir Christopher Evans - were re-bailed pending further inquiries.

According to Scotland Yard, the investigation - codenamed Operation Ribble - had overall costs of £773,177 between March 27, 2006, and April 30 this year.

Officials had originally refused to disclose a breakdown of the costs for fear of revealing details of the probe, but later agreed to supply a headline figure.

The amount is likely to have risen because the Crown Prosecution Service has asked detectives to carry out further inquiries since the evidence file was handed over in April.

Lord Levy, Tony Blair's Middle East Envoy, and Ms Turner reported to police and were rebailed.

The peer was originally arrested last July for questioning on alleged breaches of honours legislation and then arrested a second time in January this year in connection with the honours allegations and suspected conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Ms Turner was arrested at her London home in January this year and questioned over honours allegations and suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Sir Christopher - a millionaire Labour donor who was arrested and questioned by police in September - was rebailed on Monday.

All three strongly deny any wrongdoing, and no-one has been charged in connection with the controversy. Police confirmed that none of them were re-interviewed when they answered bail.