- guardian.co.uk, Sunday March 3 2002 00.32 GMT
The new report by Sir Anthony Hammond into the Hinduja passport affair provides concrete evidence that the former Minister misled The Observer last January, when he said the 'matter was dealt with by my private secretary'.
Two days after claiming he had no personal involvement in the passport application, he was forced to resign after Immigration Minister Mike O'Brien claimed Mandelson had called him. Although the existence of this call is still disputed, Mandelson has been forced to admit that he spoke to a key official in O'Brien's office about the passport application.
Mandelson also now admits phoning and writing to the Indian tycoon about his application while he was negotiating with him about his £1 million donation to the Millennium Dome.
Opposition MPs claim the new evidence means that Downing Street's claims that Hammond's report into the cash-for-passports scandal exonerates the former Minister are 'laughable'.
Mandelson denies that he lied, arguing that while he admits to speaking to Home Office officials and to Srichand Hinduja, his private office was 'the main driver' of the contacts.
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: 'We now know Mandelson lied and that he was personally calling up officials in the Home Office and helping S.P. Hinduja with his passport application. All this was going on while he trying to get the Hindujas to bail out the Dome. It seems Downing Street's line is: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good cover-up".'
When contacted last year by The Observer about his involvement in Hinduja's application, Mandelson said: 'The matter was dealt with by my private secretary. At no time did I support or endorse their application for citizenship.' He repeated this to the Prime Minister's official spokesman, Alastair Campbell, which precipitated his downfall from office.
It is now beyond doubt that Mandelson did speak to the Minister's assistant private secretary, Matthew Laxton. A note from Mandelson to one of his officials states: 'S.P., not G.P. [Hinduja]. I'll phone him if you remind me... PS: Pl[ease] send to Matthew.'
Mandelson also now admits speaking to S.P. Hinduja and writing to the tycoon with advice from O'Brien that his application would be 'looked on favourably'. Just over three weeks after Mandelson sent this letter to S.P. Hinduja in early October 1998, the tycoon applied for his passport and had agreed to donate £1m to the Dome.
O'Brien, who still insists that Mandelson called him personally, claimed that the fact that he now admits to calling both his officials and S.P. Hinduja suggests the former Northern Ireland Secretary's memory was 'unreliable'. Mandelson claims this is an 'unfair and unreasonable inference'.
Opposition MPs also claim that evidence in Hammond's second report throws serious doubt on Mandelson's statement that 'at no time' did he ever 'support' S.P. Hinduja's passport application.
In a remarkable series of memos between him and private secretary Mark Langdale, Mandelson writes: ' I believe it would be unjustified to refuse S.P. his nationality...'
Hammond - who has cleared Mandelson of any impropriety - dismissed any suggestion that he was involved in a conspiracy with his officials to grant S.P. Hinduja's passport without the Minister's involvement being apparent.
Mandelson refused to comment, although in a statement on Friday he claimed that the new report fully 'cleared him'.
