New Labour passports scandal

Tony Blair's closest ally, Peter Mandelson, has had to resign for a shaming second time and now another minister is under fire. But what is the passports scandal really about? Julian Glover explains

guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 January 2001 15.59 GMT

What is the scandal about?
The story revolves around the efforts made in 1998 by two Indian tycoons to acquire British passports. They applied - and later qualified for citizenship.

So far so good. Why the scandal?
It now appears that the tycoons' applications were assisted by two Labour ministers, Peter Mandelson, then the secretary of state for trade and industry, and Keith Vaz, then a junior, unpaid, parliamentary private secretary, but now minister for Europe. Quite what the ministers did and whether or not their intervention affected the standard application process is unclear, though it now seems the tycoons received their passports in six months rather than the usual 20. That has raised eyebrows.

What did the ministers do?
Peter Mandelson, who resigned on Wednesday, has admitted to making a phone call while he was at the department of trade and industry to the then immigration minister, Mike O'Brien. The call - says Mr O'Brien - lasted less than two minutes. Mr Mandelson apparently enquired about the progress of the application made by one of the tycoons, SP Hinduja. He says he did not lobby on the man's behalf and merely asked whether new rules would help the application. Since Mr Mandelson's resignation, Keith Vaz has also admitted involvement in the applications, writing to the Home Office to ask about the progress of the applications. He says he too has nothing to hide.

So why has Mr Mandelson resigned?
Because he did not make the fact that he had telephoned about the application clear to the culture secretary, Chris Smith (who had to answer a Commons question on the subject), or to the prime minister's press secretary, Alistair Campbell. Mr Campbell told journalists at a briefing on Monday that Peter Mandelson had not been involved. On Tuesday he had to admit that this information was wrong and shortly afterwards Mr Mandelson resigned, for misleading colleagues and, indirectly, parliament.

So if he had come clean earlier, would he have had to resign?
Probably not. Though the phone call may technically have been in breach of some rules governing ministerial conduct, the offence was not a serious one - unless Mr Mandelson and Mr Vaz had actively lobbied on behalf of the Hinduja brothers. They say that they did not and are willing to cooperate with an enquiry that the government has set up.

What will happen next?
The Conservative party will want to make Keith Vaz resign, too and hope to tag the prime minister with accusations of sleaze. But they may find this difficult, not least because it seems that the Hinduja brothers also associated with several Tory politicians, including the former prime minister, Sir Edward Heath.

Full text
The resignation speech

Special reports
Mandelson resigns
New Labour in power

Photo gallery
Mandelson: a career in pictures

Audio
Peter Mandelson announces his resignation (3mins 30)
Michael White at Westminster (2mins 14)