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Monday, 29 January, 2001, 13:20 GMT
Key players in the passports row
BBC News Online takes a look at the main players in the cash-for-passports row which led to the resignation of Peter Mandelson.
Peter Mandelson The grandson of Herbert Morrison, a Labour cabinet minister, Peter Mandelson is widely seen as one of the main architects of 'New Labour' and helped to mastermind the party's landslide 1997 election victory.
In 1998, Mr Mandelson was forced to resign from the government as Trade and Industry Secretary, over his controversial home loan from then Paymaster General, Geoffrey Robinson. After a ten-month period out of government, Tony Blair brought him back in as Northern Ireland Secretary. He resigned last week for misleading colleagues over a phone call made to Home Office minister Mike O'Brien regarding Srichand Hinduja's passport application, although he now denies making the call. Alastair Campbell The prime minister's official spokesman, Alastair Campbell is renowned for his hard-nosed dealings with the press and for his ruthless treatment of anyone who threatens the ideals of New Labour.
Together - until recently - with Peter Mandelson, he is the prime minister's oldest and closest adviser. Some go so far as to argue that he is the real deputy prime minister. Mr Campbell is thought to have played a large part in ordering Mr Mandelson's dismissal, after the minister caused him to mislead journalists and the prime minister on the Hinduja affair. Keith Vaz Minister for Europe, the former barrister was elected as MP for Leicester East in 1987, and is known as an ambitious, hardworking MP who has also courted controversy in his time.
A strong pro-European, he has been vocal against Eurosceptic claims from the opposition and media, and has spoken out over issues like racism and immigration. He is accused of making inappropriate representations on Mr Hinduja's behalf, but denies any wrongdoing. Hinduja brothers Described as one of the world's most influential families, the four brothers jointly control a globe-spanning empire with interests in finance, telecommunications, film and oil businesses worth an estimated $8bn.
Three of the brothers - Srichand, Prakash and Gopichand -are being investigated in India over claims of criminal conspiracy and bribery in connection with the purchase of artillery guns from the Swedish Bofors company in 1986. Sir Anthony Hammond QC The former Treasury solicitor has been charged by the prime minister with leading the inquiry into the passports-for-cash row.
He is expected to report back to Mr Blair by the end of February and his findings will then be published. He was appointed Treasury Solicitor in March 1997, and was granted the Order of the Bath in 1999's New Years' Honours list. Norman Baker This Liberal Democrat MP first raised the questions in Parliament that led to the passport-for-cash row emerging.
Mr Baker, MP for Lewes, said of Mandelson's resignation: "It was inevitable that this would happen when he had exposed the prime minister and his colleagues in a very unhelpful way."
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