On 24 January 2001, Peter Mandelson stepped down as Northern Ireland secretary, resigning from the cabinet for the second time in just over two years.

The self-described “Third Man” in New Labour first resigned from the cabinet as trade and industry secretary in December 1998, following the revelation that he had accepted an undisclosed loan of £373,000 from the multimillionaire Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson.

Mandelson’s second resignation, two years later, followed allegations that he had intervened in the passport application of Indian tycoon Srichand Hinduja. The alleged intervention took place in 1998 when Mandelson was a minister without portfolio with responsibility for the Millennium Dome – the so-called “dome secretary”.

The Hinduja family had donated £1 million to the Millennium project.

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Mandelson’s resignation came after he was summoned to Downing Street to establish the facts of the case. His resignation statement was delivered outside 10 Downing Street just after 01:30 pm.

The outgoing minister denied any wrongdoing, but conceded he had issued public statements on the issue of the passports to reporters which gave the wrong impression as to his involvement.

Mandelson said: “I do accept, however, that when my office spoke to a Sunday newspaper at the weekend, I should have been clear that it was me personally, not my official, who spoke to the Home Office minister [Mike O’Brien on behalf of Srichand Hinduja].

“As a result of that reply, incorrect information was given to the House by the culture secretary and to the press by the prime minister’s official spokesman.”

Mandelson added: “I would only ask people to understand that my sole desire and motivation throughout was to emphasise that I had not sought to influence the decision on naturalisation in any way at all, merely to pass on a request for information and the prime minister is entirely satisfied with this.”

The departure of Mandelson, a key architect of the New Labour project and one of Tony Blair’s closest allies, was seen as a significant blow to the government. In light of his second resignation, BBC News reported that Mandelson’s political career “at the highest… level appears to be over”.

Mandelson’s resignation came shortly before Blair was due to appear in the House of Commons for prime minister’s questions. Blair began with a statement addressing his close ally’s resignation.

The prime minister said: “As the House is well aware, I had a meeting this morning with my right honourable friend the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, who has since announced his decision to resign from the government later today.

“I would like to pay the warmest possible tribute to him for the tireless efforts he has made to secure peace in Northern Ireland and also for his personal courage and sense of duty in coming to the House this afternoon to answer questions on Northern Ireland before departing the government”.

William Hague, the Conservative leader of the opposition, mocked Blair for his “career-long dependency” on Mandelson.

Hague said: “Now that the prime minister has notched up the historic achievement of being forced to sack the same minister for the same offence twice in 25 months, does he recognise that his career-long dependency on [Mandelson] has been a monumental error of judgment?”

Blair dismissed the Conservative leader’s line of questioning, expressing his regret that Hague had refused to behave “graciously” and “lived down to my expectations”.

He maintained that Mandelson was “a bigger man than many of his critics.”

Blair added: “I really think that by that performance [Hague] diminishes himself far more than he diminishes anybody else.”

An independent inquiry later cleared Mandelson of having influenced the passport decision.

The inquiry, led by Sir Anthony Hammond, found there was no connection between the Hindujas’ donation to the Millennium Dome and their successful applications for citizenship.

The inquiry concluded: “No improper pressure was brought to bear by any minister in respect of these applications.”

Speaking shortly after the report’s publication, Mandelson said: “Sir Anthony’s report establishes that I did not lie, did not deceive and did not set out to mislead.”

He added: “For reasons I am sure you will understand I do not desire to return to government. There are more ways to serve New Labour and to fulfil our ambitions of the country and that is what I intend to do.”

Blair commented: “I said to people right at the beginning that this was a tragic case and I said I believed Peter would be cleared of any impropriety.

“I am very pleased for his sake he has been, and I hope he will be able to get on with rebuilding his life.”

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Mandelson was re-elected as the Labour MP for Hartlepool at the 2001 general election. He had been challenged by the President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Arthur Scargill, standing for the Socialist Labour Party, and former Labour Party press officer John Booth, standing as “Genuine Labour”.

Mandelson was ultimately re-elected with a large majority of 14,571 votes over the Conservative candidate. Scargill secured just 912 votes; Booth won 424 votes.

In a famous victory speech, Mandelson told his Hartlepool constituency count that he was a “fighter and not a quitter”. These exact words were later employed by Liz Truss shortly before her resignation as prime minister.

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Mandelson stated: “In politics, as in life, you have bad days and you have good days, and I think today has been a good day…

“I am grateful to Hartlepool for putting me back on the political map. Before this campaign started, it was said that I was facing political oblivion, my career in tatters, apparently never to be part of the political living again.

“Well, they underestimated Hartlepool, and they underestimated me, because I am a fighter and not a quitter.”

Mandelson stepped down from parliament in 2004, having been appointed as European commissioner for trade.

The former minister then made two unexpected political comebacks.

In October 2008, Mandelson was recalled from his post as European commissioner to serve as secretary of state for business, enterprise, and regulatory reform in Gordon Brown’s cabinet. In order to take up this position, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool.

In his maiden speech in the Lords, Mandelson said it was “nice to be back.”

In June 2009, Mandelson was appointed as first secretary of state.

On 20 December 2024, Keir Starmer announced the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the next British ambassador to the United States of America. Starmer’s decision to dispatch the supposedly diplomatically savvy “Prince of Darkness” to the states was designed to secure influence with the incoming administration of Donald Trump.

Starmer described Mandelson as possessing “unrivalled experience”.