£33m private hospital held back Gaddafi rent payments

Britain's largest private hospital stopped paying its rent after finding out the money was propping up Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi's regime, it was revealed today.

The Wellington Hospital's £33million Platinum Medical Centre in St John's Wood is owned by Jawaby Property Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Libya's National Oil Corporation.

A spokesman for the hospital said its management was not aware that the property was connected to Gaddafi when it signed the lease.

He added: "When hostilities began we reported it to the Treasury as the Government was locking up Gaddafi regime assets and we realised we had a tenuous link to the Libyan state.

"We got a licence from the Treasury to continue paying the rent but decided it wasn't the moral thing to do and we withheld it. A lot of people would say that was the right thing to do.

"We felt that amid hostilities we shouldn't pay any rent, not until there was a new government in Libya."

With Libya now under the control of the National Transitional Council, the hospital has resumed rent payment.