Select Committee on Standards and Privileges Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witness (Questions 60 - 79)

TUESDAY 18 MAY 1999

MR PETER MANDELSON

Mr Bottomley

  60.  You see the building society manager on Friday 30 August 1996, is that right? It was a Friday?
  (Mr Mandelson)  The 30th, yes.

  61.  Thursday or Friday?
  (Mr Mandelson)  I do not remember whether it was Thursday or Friday, I am afraid. It was whatever the date that I signed on.

  62.  It was actually signed on the day that the date is there?
  (Mr Mandelson)  I see what you mean. Yes.

  63.  Which was a Friday?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  64.  The house was costing £465 or £475,000. The difference does not matter. I am just trying to get the picture.
  (Mr Mandelson)  They had accepted my offer of 465.

  65.  Was that what you actually paid for it?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  66.  For this 465 you were having a mortgage of 150?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  67.  Which is what the value— That was the sum on the mortgage application which was approved and paid? I am leaving aside the odd 1,000 for expenses maybe, and you had a loan of £373,000 from Geoffrey Robinson, is that right?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  68.  So that gives us £523,000. Have I got my calculations right?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  69.  Which is about £60,000, say £55,000, more than the cost of buying the house?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  70.  When Wilmington Square was sold, we understood it to be worth around £170,000? I do not think we know what it was sold for.
  (Mr Mandelson)  I am afraid I cannot remember either.

  71.  Let us say having paid back the mortgage of £40,000, it produced about £130,000?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Right.

  72.  I am putting this interrogatively.
  (Mr Mandelson)  I accept what you say.

  73.  Anyway, it seems from the papers in front of us this appears to be what happened, and there was a mortgage of about £35,000 on Hutton?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  74.  Which was paid back when Wilmington Square was sold?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  75.  So if Wilmington Square had produced, say, a surplus of about £120-130,000, having paid back the Hutton mortgage there was about £90,000 spare?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Right. I would be surprised if it was quite as much as that, but possibly less.

  76.  Let us say £80,000. There are costs of doing all this kind of thing?
  (Mr Mandelson)  Yes.

  77.  Did you use anything like £80,000 to repay Geoffrey Robinson at all?
  (Mr Mandelson)  No, I paid him back £40,000 because the remainder of the money I used on Northumberland.

  78.  Just give us a rough picture. Like Dale, I am not happy about going into other people's personal details or family life or your mother or other things.
  (Mr Mandelson)  I do not mind.

  79.  Roughly how much did you spend on Northumberland?
  (Mr Mandelson)  About £40-50,000.


 
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