Mr Peter Mandelson's resignation from the British government was confirmed by the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, at Question Time in the House of Commons yesterday.
"As the House is very well aware, I had a meeting this morning with Mr Mandelson, who has since announced his decision to resign from the government later today," Mr Blair said.
"I would like to pay the warmest possible tribute to him for the tireless efforts he has made in securing 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."
Conservative MP Mr Bill Cash demanded: "Will you take the opportunity to spell out the truth to the Commons and the country regarding the events surrounding Mr Mandelson?"
Mr Blair told him: "I accept that the reply of the Northern Ireland Secretary through his office to inquiries from a newspaper at the weekend was misleading and resulted in the House of Commons and the lobby being misled - and I accepted his resignation on that basis."
Mr Blair said that on the information currently available to him, "I believe the application for naturalisation of the individual in question to have been decided in accordance with the proper criteria and so does the Home Secretary. Nonetheless, I have asked Sir Anthony Hammond QC, former Treasury solicitor, to review the case fully, so we can be sure the application was properly dealt with in all respects. Sir Anthony will report his findings to me and we will publish them."
The Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, said to the Prime Minister: "Now you've notched up the historic achievement of being forced to sack the same minister for the same offence twice in 25 months, do you recognise that your career-long dependency on Mr Mandelson has been a monumental error of judgment?"
Mr Blair responded: "I don't suppose I ever expected you to behave graciously at all over his resignation. But I believe that the job that Mr Mandelson has done in Northern Ireland well merited his position as Secretary of State. I think he has made an enormous contribution to it [the peace process]. Indeed, I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that I doubt the process in Northern Ireland would have been sustained so well, except with his commitment.
"I therefore believe it was right that he occupied that position and I also believe that he is a bigger man than many of his critics."
Mr Hague went on: "The fact is that to reappoint, in September 1999, a disgraced minister, 10 months after he was forced to resign, in breach of every convention and precedent, was a demonstration of the arrogance with which you wield your power. To spare yourself and the country going through this a third time, will you now guarantee that Mr Mandelson will not be running the election campaign of the Labour party and will not return to office in any government led by you?"
Mr Blair replied: "Mr Mandelson has already made that clear in the statement he made earlier. I think he has done the right thing. I think he has done the honourable thing. It is a long tradition in this House that when someone does do that, we pay tribute to it. I am only sorry that once again you have lived down to my expectations." Mr Hague came back again, saying: "Mr Mandelson has done the right thing, but it's a pity your judgment led him to have to do it twice within the space of one parliament.
"Doesn't this go wider . . . because Mr Mandelson has been central to everything you have done?
"It was Mr Mandelson who picked you out, who briefed the press for you, who stabbed the Chancellor [Mr Gordon Brown] in the back for you, who spun all of your campaigns for you."
Mr Blair said: "I repeat that I believe it was the right thing for him to do, that he came back into government as the Northern Ireland Secretary.
"And I honestly do believe that in the broad sweep of history his contribution to that process will be far greater than what has happened in the last 24 hours - tragic though that is."
Mr Hague said: "It is not about the broad sweep of history. It is about the conduct of this government and the disgraceful conduct of this government.
"Hasn't it told us everything we need to know, not about Mr Mandelson, but about the way this government does its business?
"When asked to choose between high standards of government and the low politics of your cronies, you have unerringly chosen the latter.
"You set those standards yourself. In every incomplete answer in this House, every distorted accusation and every piece of baseless spin, you have set the standards of this government."
Mr Blair told him: "I really think that by that performance, you diminish yourself far more than you diminish anyone else.
"I made it clear that if people did something wrong they would pay the penalty, and he has paid the penalty.
"But I also believe that he can be very proud of the record and contribution he made while in government.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, stressed to the Prime Minister: "If there was an error of judgment at work in this Chamber this afternoon, it is perhaps the error of judgment which fails to acknowledge that you, as a result of this morning's events, have confirmed that ministers of the Crown have not just got to be beyond reproach but have got to be seen to be beyond reproach.
"Would you agree that one of the practical implications of today's events is that the Ministerial Code of Conduct should now be reviewed with the specific aim of seeking to further public confidence in the political processes of it?"
Mr Blair said there was no need for a review of the code of conduct.
"What is necessary is to make judgments under it. I think the code is indeed justified in its own terms," he said.
He added: "I thank you however, for the tone of the rest of your remarks, which do stand in contrast with the Conservative opposition, who I suspect, having for some weeks tried to get some argument on policy up and failed, are all too happy to turn to something else."