Paul Lewis

So it was publicly known that Mandelson had a relationship with Deripaska.

I mean, that's been quite long standing.

Of course, it wasn't known that that was one of the associations that was an issue of concern to security officials.

I mean, you know, I guess it is noteworthy that both when it comes to Lan, the Chinese minister, and Deripaska, those are two individuals who, if you like, are embedded in the power structures of two hostile states, China and Russia.

But those associations were not the only concerns that were flagged by the agency.

There were more.

There was also a concern that Mandelson was naive in relation to the risks posed by some of his historical relationships, completely unrelated.

And also, intriguingly, there was a £1 million loan that security officials noted was due to be used to purchase shares in an Israeli company.

company.

Now, the fact he had shares in this company, this company is called Moon Active, it's an Israeli gaming company, was known.

But when we looked at the declaration of interest, there was no reference to this loan.

So, you know, one of the many questions, I think, for Mandelson in the coming days and for the government will be why this loan wasn't declared in the House of Lords register.

You know, a lot of this can seem quite complicated and convoluted, but really it boils down to some essential facts.

Security officials did not think that Mandelson should be given clearance.

The Foreign Office gave him clearance anyway.

We didn't previously know what the reasons were for security officials having concerns about Mandelson getting clearance.

We now do.

They appear to be somewhat wide-ranging, and that opens a whole slew of new questions for the government, for the Foreign Office, for Mandelson himself.

That is that's one of the curious questions.

I mean, actually, what he said was not that he believed it to be a borderline case.