The Davies Affair: The History

Monday 26 October

7.30pm: Mr Davies goes to Clapham Common. He meets a man and gives him a lift in his car to a Brixton council estate, where he is held up at knifepoint by a man and a woman. His car is stolen.

9.30pm: The MP takes a taxi to Brixton police station and claims he has been a victim of a "car-jacking". Detectives take him for a tour of the area. He changes his story and admits he had picked up the man on the common.

Tuesday 27 October

10am: Scotland Yard Deputy Commissioner John Stevens phones the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to tell him of Mr Davies' claims.

10.20am: Mr Stevens briefsMr Straw in person then phones Number 10 to give details of police report.

11am: Mr Davies arrives for meeting with Mr Blair to tell him his version of events. Denies any sexual encounter. Agrees to resign and to publish resignation letters later in the day.

4pm: In a BBC TV interview, he accepts he was guilty of "something foolish, a serious lapse of judgement" in allowing himself to be a victim of crime. He goes into hiding with his wife Christina and daughter, Angharad, 13.

Wednesday 28 October

Car found by police. Three people arrested before being released without charge. Downing Street suggests for first time Mr Blair is "not totally satisfied" with Mr Davies' account. Mr Camp- bell insists Mr Blair knows only what had been made public. Claims the press know "all the salient facts".

Thursday 29 October

Another man is arrested on suspicion of driving the stolen car, but later bailed. Mr Davies withdraws his candidacy for First Minister of the Welsh Assembly, but insists nothing "improper or illegal" had occurred.

Friday 30 October

In TV interviews, the MP refuses to deny suggestionshe is gay. Says he is "not going to get into a position of answering that question". Describes his decision to pick up the man as "moment of madness".

Saturday 31 October

A man appears before Camberwell Magistrates accused of robbing him. Newspapers quote "police sources" that claim that Mr Davies had walked inBattersea Park before driving on to Brixton.

Sunday 1 November

Tabloid newspapers claim Mr Davies has a history of visits to homosexual pick-up points.

Monday 2 November

11am: Mr Campbell tells journalists Mr Blair had "not been warned about Mr Davies by anybody".

3.30pm: Mr Davies delivers his personal statement to the House of Commons, launching an assault on media intrusion and fuelling speculation about his sexuality with his declar- ation: "We are what we are."

Tuesday 3 November

Allegations surface that the MP was blackmailed by his attackers. Another man is arrested.

Wednesday 4 November

The Sun claims Mr Davies had had sexual encounters with the men he met in Clapham and Brixton.

Thursday 5 November

Downing Street reveals that Mr Blair had indeed been alerted about the incident by Home Office officials before Mr Davies came to see him at 11am on the day he resigned. It emerges that the Home Office had briefed PM's private office about gay sex allegations. Number 10 had rung the MP to summon him to discuss the matter.