Trade Secretary Peter Mandelson has resigned after it emerged he borrowed £373,000 from Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson, who, hours later also stepped down.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Mandelson says he should not have taken the money, although he insists he has done nothing wrong.

However he does accept he should have told officials at the Department of Trade and Industry and the Prime Minister earlier about the loan from the Paymaster General, which helped him to buy his home in London's Notting Hill.

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In Mr Robinson's resignation letter to the Prime Minister, he said that after enduring 12 months of "a highly charged political campaign" he had reached the point where it was right to go.

Mr Mandelson writes to Mr Blair: "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 entirely stood aside from this."

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