Hope for Mandelson as Hinduja inquiry reopens

The return of Peter Mandelson to frontline politics appeared to move a step closer last night after Downing Street confirmed it had reopened the Hinduja passport inquiry.

Mr Mandelson, who resigned from the Cabinet when the controversy broke last year, could see his name cleared in a report being compiled by Sir Anthony Hammond QC.

Downing Street said Sir Anthony, the former Treasury solicitor appointed by Tony Blair to conduct the original inquiry, was examining new documents that could clarify Mr Mandelson's role. "Additional papers have come to light and Sir Anthony has been asked to review them and advise whether they would affect the conclusions of his original inquiry. We expect him to complete his review shortly," a Downing Street spokesman said. Sir Anthony began work on the review just before Christmas and the move is bound to provoke speculation that the Prime Minister is preparing a return to the Government for his one of his closest political allies.

Mr Mandelson is understood to have met Sir Anthony last month, with Tyson Hepple, the Home Official official who is secretary to the inquiry. The former Northern Ireland Secretary was forced out of the Cabinet in January 2001 because of a claim that he had made a crucial phone call to Mike O'Brien, a Home Office minister, about the passport application of Srichand Hinduja. Mr Hinduja was one of the billionaire Indian brothers who had offered to sponsor the Dome when Mr Mandelson was responsible for the project. Mr Mandelson always insisted that he had "no recollection" of making the phone call and no documentary evidence was found by Sir Anthony in his original investigation.

However, the inquiry, which found no evidence of impropriety in the granting of the passport, concluded that it was "likely" that the call had been made because Mr O'Brien had such a strong recollection of it.

Friends of Mr Mandelson have argued that he was unfairly treated and that other ministers would have been allowed to stay in office until an investigation had been completed. The Hammond report was attacked as a whitewash because it failed to cover some events and exempted everyone except junior civil servants.

Since his resignation, Mr Mandelson has concentrated on his Hartlepool constituency and been involved in occasional forays into regional and mayoral policy. He has denied he wanted to sit on the European Convention, a body set up to oversee the future of the European Union.

However, some people close to the former minister believe that a ministerial comeback is unlikely given the fact that Mr Mandelson has twice resigned from the Cabinet.