Mandelson 'isolated' in passport row

Mandelson says he resigned in a moment of weakness

LONDON, England -- Former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson has said he was forced to resign last week because of "a small mistake" blown out of proportion by the media.

In his first detailed account of his role in an Indian tycoon's passport application, Mandelson said he was rushed into resigning and only agreed to go in a moment of personal weakness.

It coincided with reports in Sunday newspapers that Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair was ruthlessly distancing himself from the friend who was his closest adviser.

"Number 10 puts knife into 'detached' Mandelson," The Independent on Sunday headlined its report about what it called an "extraordinary" briefing by Blair's official spokesman, Alastair Campbell.

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"There are things he (Mandelson) cannot explain to himself. He has been slightly detached. It is absolutely tragic because his career is in tatters," the Independent quoted Campbell as saying.

Other newspapers carried similar reports about a briefing described by The Observer as "a ruthless demonstration of how Number 10 deals with errant former allies."

Mandelson stepped down on Wednesday as Northern Ireland Secretary amid varying accounts of his 1998 involvement in the British passport application by Srichand Hinduja, who had donated £1 million ($1.47 million) to the Millennium Dome for which Mandelson had been responsible.

But in his Sunday Times article about what he termed a long and terrible week, Mandelson, who was a key architect of the rebranding of the Labour party, said he was pressured to quit despite having nothing to be ashamed of.

"For the first time, and I hope the last time in my life, the fight suddenly went out of me. I felt isolated.

"A small mistake -- a failure to focus on a small matter -- had turned into a monumental disaster," Mandelson wrote, insisting that he had not used his influence to get special treatment for Hinduja.

Mandelson said that at no time did he remember having made a phone call to Immigration Minister Mike O'Brien about the Hindujas' passport application.

It was the discrepancy between his initial statement that the call was handled by his private office and O'Brien's recollection that a personal call on the issue had been made that proved fatal for Mandelson.

He wrote: "I am not a liar. I did not lie. What I did do was make the mistake of speaking out before establishing all the facts and rushing into last-minute interviews."

He swore to clear his name in the investigation of the affair being carried out by Sir Anthony Hammond QC.

Srichand, one of four hugely wealthy brothers, had had a previous application rejected in 1990 but obtained his British passport in 1998. The brothers have strongly denied there was any link between the donation to the Dome and Srichand's passport.

The brothers are being questioned by investigators in New Delhi over an arms scandal involving alleged kickbacks.

It was the second time that Mandelson was forced to resign from the cabinet. In 1998 he stood down after it was revealed that he had borrowed a large sum from a ministerial colleague to buy a house.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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UK Prime Minister
Northern Ireland Office

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