Mandelson role as Blair's 'emissary' to Asia criticised
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Your support makes all the difference.Peter Mandelson, the former Northern Ireland Secretary, was the subject of fresh controversy yesterday after he was described by the Foreign Office as Tony Blair's "special emissary to East Asia".
The Liberal Democrats and the Tories called on Downing Street to clarify what appeared to be a new government role for Mr Mandelson two years after he left the Cabinet.
The Hartlepool MP's status was questioned when he gave a speech in Jakarta yesterday denouncing American proposals to topple Saddam Hussein as a "recipe for chaos". According to the Foreign Office's website on Indonesia, Mr Mandelson was making a trip as "Tony Blair's Special Emissary to East Asia".
Although senior government sources denied that he had been given any such role, opposition parties demanded a full explanation from Downing Street. The row follows similar concerns over the status of Lord Levy, Labour's chief fundraiser and Mr Blair's personal envoy in the Middle East.
Mr Mandelson was appointed earlier this year as chairman of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group. Mr Blair wrote in a parliamentary answer that he had appointed his former minister to the post, but Downing Street was later forced to retract the claim. A senior Government source said: "Peter Mandelson was not there in any official or unofficial role. He is not an envoy of the Prime Minister."
But Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary, wrote to the Prime Minister to ask what accountability Mr Mandelson would have to Parliament. "The Prime Minister will never learn. Here's a man forced out twice from ministerial positions for his behaviour, now acting as a special emissary in the Far East," he said. "Many will take this as confirmation that only Tony's cronies are eligible for such high-ranking Foreign Office roles."
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes who precipitated Mr Mandelson's second cabinet resignation, called for an inquiry into his UK-Japan role earlier this year. "The Foreign Office website has let the cat out of the bag. If the Prime Minister wants to appoint people to represent him then that is his right, but let's have Peter Mandelson answer questions in the Commons as to exactly what he is doing." It was "unhelpful" to have a parallel arrangement in which Downing Street appointees cut across the work of the Foreign Office, he said.
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