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Mandelson resigns over
passport for Hinduja

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson has resigned from the cabinet, for an unprecedented second time, following allegations that he helped a Hinduja brother get a UK passport.

He told reporters outside 10 Downing Street on Wednesday, after meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair, that he did not acted "improperly in any way" over the passport application of Srichand Hinduja, who along with his brothers Prakash and Gopichand, face allegations of receiving payoffs for a deal involving the Bofors guns.

He, however, agreed that he had misled the government.

Blair accepted the resignation, after calling Mandelson to Downing Street to "establish the facts" of his involvement in the passport saga.

Mandelson had come under increasing pressure since the weekend following claims that he used his influence to help Hinduja secure a passport after he pledged £1m in sponsorship for the Millennium Dome when Mandelson was in-charge of it.

Mandelson first quit in 1998, after he did not disclose that he had secretly received a £373,000 loan from then fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson to purchase a house in London.

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