Mandelson vows to come clean in passport scandal

Mandelson vows to come clean in passport scandal
REUTERS

LONDON, FEB 4: Disgraced former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson on Sunday vowed to clear his name in the wake of a passport scandal which forced his resignation but said he would do nothing to harm the government.

Mandelson, a close ally of Prime Minister Tony Blair and the architect of the ruling Labour Party’s landslide 1997 election victory, resigned last month when it emerged he had misled colleagues about his role in Indian billionaire Srichand Hinduja’s passport application.

In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, Mandelson made it clear he felt brow-beaten into resigning and was determined to clear his name.

‘‘I know I didn’t lie and I have got to establish that,’’ he said.

‘‘Nothing I will do will ever be designed to harm the Government or the party-I think everyone knows that,’’ he added.

Mandelson said he was not seeking revenge against the government, but felt he had a duty to restore his reputation in the wake of the scandal. Mandelson told the paper he had written thousands of words in his Defence which he intends to present to Sir Anthony Hammond QUC, who is holding an inquiry into the affair. ‘‘I am not going to stand by and have my career destroyed - and that is what will happen if the truth doesn’t come out,’’ he said.

The Hinduja scandal has plunged Blair into perhaps the gravest crisis of his four years in power.

Blair brought Mandelson back to cabinet last year after he first resigned in 1998 after borrowing a large sum from ex-minister Geoffrey Robinson to buy a house.The political future of Europe minister Keith Vaz is also under threat amid continuing questions about his links to the Hinduja family.

Mandelson’s determination to clear his name will not be welcomed by the cabinet, anxious to leave behind allegations of corruption and ministerial abuse in the run-up to an expected Spring election.

The Hammond report is due at the end of February and any evidence of government wrongdoing would dash Blair’s hopes for a trouble-free run to the expected May elections.