The British Prime Minister's closest political ally strove yesterday to rebut allegations he acted improperly in British passport applications by an Indian business tycoon.
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, who has already resigned from government once in a scandal, issued a statement saying he had talked to the immigration minister in 1998 about a passport application by Mr Srichand Hinduja.
Mr Hinduja, and his brothers Gopichand and Prakash, are now in India for questioning by police about their links to a 15-year-old arms scandal.
The billionaire brothers, whose business interests span media, banking, oil and chemicals, deny any wrongdoing in the Bofors scandal involving alleged kickbacks.
Mr Mandelson said he had neither supported nor sponsored Mr Hinduja's application for a passport.
"An innocent inquiry was made in a two-minute phone conversation facilitated by civil servants and monitored by them," he said. "That is the beginning and end of this story."
Mr Mandelson spoke to the Home Office Minister, Mr Mike O'Brien, about the process of passport requests, having met Mr Hinduja at a party.
Mr Tony Blair's official spokesman leapt to his defence, saying Mr Mandelson had merely passed inquiries on to the relevant department. "There is nothing improper at all in Peter having been approached at an event," Mr Alastair Campbell said.
But he was forced to admit that the government's line earlier in the week - that Mr Mandelson had been asked to get involved but had not - had not proved strictly accurate.
Mr Campbell added that he had received a similar approach from Mr Prakash Hinduja last year, which had not led to an application.
Mr Srichand Hinduja has received British citizenship, having been turned down years earlier.
Opposition MPs are pursuing a possible connection with the brothers' £1 million donation to sponsor one of the zones in London's ill-fated Millennium Dome. Mr Mandelson was minister in charge of the Dome in 1998.
"This seems to be a case of . . . buying a very expensive entry ticket to the Dome and getting nationality in return," the Liberal Democrats politician, Mr Norman Baker, said on Monday.