Labour government rocked by high level resignations
By Julie Hyland
24 December 1998
Two leading ministers in Tony Blair's Labour government resigned within
hours of each other on Wednesday afternoon.
Peter Mandelson, Trade and Industry Secretary, quit at lunchtime just days
after it was disclosed that he had failed to declare a £373,000 loan made
to him by fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson, the Paymaster General. The
loan was made by Robinson in 1996 when the two were in opposition.
Mandelson's resignation as head of the Department of Trade & Industry
(DTI) left Robinson no option but to take a similar course of action later in
the day.
Robinson, a multimillionaire with a personal wealth estimated at between
£18 million and £30 million, had agreed to help Mandelson purchase a
£475,000 house in Notting Hill, London two years ago. Mandelson stated
that he considered the loan an "entirely personal, non-political confidential
matter between two friends". But he failed to disclose the loan even when
his own department began an investigation into Robinson's business affairs,
following a reprimand by the House of Commons earlier this year for not
properly declaring numerous business interests.
The press became aware of the loan arrangement last Thursday but held
the story back while Britain and the United States conducted their bombing
raids against Iraq. Since the Guardian newspaper first disclosed details on
Monday, Mandelson spent several days in a frantic round of media
interviews aimed at explaining his position and denying any allegations of
"sleaze".
Peter Mandelson is a close friend of the prime minister. As senior "spin
doctor" he was credited with ensuring Blair's succession to the Labour
leadership following the death of John Smith in 1994, and is one of the
main driving forces behind the Labour Party's "modernisation". But even
Blair was not told of the loan until just a week ago.
On Monday Blair issued a personal statement saying he was "confident"
that Mandelson was "properly insulated" from any decision by DTI officials
regarding Robinson's business arrangements. But the Conservative Party
was rumoured to be after "bigger fish". This was followed by further
allegations in the Guardian on Wednesday that Robinson had "bankrolled"
Chancellor Gordon Brown's office, staff and research costs whilst in
opposition.
In his resignation letter to the prime minister Mandelson stated that he did
not "believe that I have done anything wrong or improper. But I should not,
with all candour, have entered into the arrangement. I should, having done
so, have told you and other colleagues whose advice I value. And I should
have told my Permanent Secretary on learning of the inquiry into Geoffrey
Robinson, although I had entirely stood aside from this." He went on, "But
we came to power promising to uphold the highest possible standards in
public life. We have not just to do so, but we must be seen to do so.
Therefore with huge regret I wish to resign."
In response, Blair praised Mandelson: "Without your support and advice
we would never have built New Labour." Holding the door open for the
former DTI minister to maintain a leading, albeit less public, role in
government, he continued that it was his belief that "in the future, you will
achieve much, much more with us".
Geoffrey Robinson stated in his resignation letter he had "done nothing
wrong" and would "vigorously defend myself against any allegations. In the
case of the loan to Peter Mandelson, I merely considered myself in 1996
as someone in a position to help a long-standing friend, with no request for
anything". Yet "after more than 12 months of a highly charged political
campaign, the point has been reached when I feel that it is no longer right
that you or your Government should be affected by or have to contend
with these attacks."
When Labour came to power in 1997 it promised to "clean up politics"--a
reference to a series of corruption scandals that had engulfed the previous
Tory administration. Three months later Blair issued a revised code of
conduct for his ministers aimed at helping to restore "the bond of trust
between the people and their government".
The code stated that ministers should "order their affairs so that no conflict
arises or is thought to arise between their private interests (financial or
otherwise) and their public duties." Ministers "must scrupulously avoid any
danger of an actual or apparent conflict of interest" and "no minister or
public servant should accept gifts, hospitality or services from anyone
which would, or might appear to, place him or her under an obligation".
Although the relationship between Mandelson and Robinson has not
strictly broken the code in this instance, given that they were in opposition
at the time, the latter was the first leading Labour figure whose personal
dealings had been called into question. This included his use of offshore
trusts as repositories for his personal fortune.
Blair was forced to sacrifice the two to save his government's credibility. In
his reply to Mandelson's resignation letter, Blair went on, "as you said to
me 'we can't be like the last lot' and that what we are trying to achieve for
the country is more important than any individual".
It is not the first time that Blair has had to lose a key minister in order to
silence a press campaign. In October he accepted the resignation of Welsh
Secretary Ron Davies, another close political ally, following allegations that
he had been looking for "gay sex" when he was robbed in a London park.
The latest resignations bring to five the total number of ministers to have
quit the government in the last 20 months.
However, whilst Blair has used the resignations as a sign of his
preparedness to act tough, they have undoubtedly weakened the prime
minister. They have also led to speculation on who was responsible for
leaking details of Mandelson's personal loan. There are allegations that the
"finger on the trigger" came from within the Labour leadership, the product
of an ongoing "power struggle" between Blair's office and that of
Chancellor Gordon Brown.
>>>Sort of smells like Clinton. |
