UK:Former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson has a legitimate grievance over his enforced second resignation from Tony Blair's cabinet, according to former Downing Street communications director Alastair Campbell.
Mr Campbell confirms that Mr Mandelson is "entitled to feel aggrieved" in an interview with The Irish Times ahead of Monday's launch in Dublin of his diary extracts on The Blair Years.
Mr Mandelson's first resignation, as trade and industry secretary, came in December 1998 over his non-disclosure of a £373,000 loan from then paymaster general Geoffrey Robinson. Restored to office by prime minister Blair, he was then forced to quit his Stormont post in February 2001 in the controversy over the Hinduja passports affair.
Mr Mandelson has always denied suggestions that he used his influence to obtain passports for the Indian businessmen who had backed the Millennium Dome project.
Mr Campbell denies that Mr Mandelson's fate was decided in "a panic", before the full facts were established, while admitting: "I think we assumed the worst because of what had gone before."
He says the crisis surrounding Mr Blair's key ally was not "handled well" by any of the players in the drama - himself, Mr Blair and Mr Mandelson included. But he adds: "I think had it been anybody else we would probably have toughed it out longer."
Mr Campbell first expressed regret that Mr Mandelson was no longer in government. But when pressed whether upon reflection - his personal regrets apart - Mr Mandelson was "entitled to feel aggrieved" about his enforced departure, Mr Campbell replied: "I think he is."
Identifying Mr Mandelson's "non-disclosure" of the Robinson loan as the unavoidable issue leading to the first resignation, Mr Campbell says "second time around it was just a car crash".
Mr Campbell also denies being "self-indulgent" in describing the news of government scientist David Kelly's suicide as his "worst day" in government.
Dr Kelly's family accused Downing Street of unmasking him as a source for BBC claims that the government had "sexed up" its dossier on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Campbell admitted that he wanted Dr Kelly's name out as the source while maintaining he did nothing to make that happen.
On first learning of Dr Kelly's disappearance, Mr Campbell writes: "I could sense a juggernaut moving my way."
Asked if he could understand the suggestion that it was self-indulgent of him to talk about his personal feelings in the context of Dr Kelly's death, Mr Campbell replied: "But it's a diary . . . you've got to put a lot of yourself out there as well . . . it's warts and all."
Mr Campbell also laughingly tells of the reaction of Mr Blair's former chief of staff Jonathan Powell after reading the full diaries. "Well, nobody could say it's self-serving, because you come across as a complete lunatic."