#Labourlost the right to preach to the British public about standards and ethics after the debacle which began the day that Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary first resigned from the Cabinet when he was still an MP.

In 1998, whilst working as Trade Secretary and in the days without his peerage Peter Mandelson resigned over the interest-free loan of £373,000 from the Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson who later accused Lord Mandelson of lying to the Commons about the home loan affair that cost both of them their Government jobs.

In his resignation letter Peter Mandelson was obviously both embarrassed and humbled

I should not, with all candour, have entered into the arrangement.

I should, having done so, have told you and other colleagues whose advice I value and I should have told my permanent secretary on learning of the inquiry into Geoffrey Robinson, although I entirely stood aside from this.

The second resignation came in 2001 over a passport row for the Hinduja family amid their sponsorship of the Faith Zone in the Millennium Dome.

After a number of years in the wilderness Mandelson became a European Commissioner For Trade in 2004 until 2008 when during a particularly rough time for Gordon Brown there was a shock ‘call-up’ for Peter Mandelson who was said to be

surprised but proud

…to be offered the role as Business Secretary.

How is it all to end for Lord Mandelson third time around? Only time will tell but you can rest assured that the British public are less susceptible to his wily ways since his own fallibility was exposed.