Mandelson's £5,500-a-night business trip to Moscow

LORD Mandelson faced fresh controversy today after staying in a £5,500-a-night suite during a four-day trade trip to Moscow.

The Business Secretary's stay in the Linley Suite at the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel raised questions over his love of the high life.

Britain's captains of industry, including CBI head Richard Lambert, are paying less than £300 a night at the Golden Ring Hotel in the city. The Cabinet minister's spokesman stressed the hotel was charging £860 a night and that he had been upgraded to the suite, designed by the Queen's nephew Lord Linley, free.

The peer is insisting he is getting on with his job of promoting British trade overseas, but his visit has been dogged by questions over his links with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska who entertained him on his £80 million yacht moored off Corfu in August.

Lord Mandelson denies doing Mr Deripaska any favours while he was EU Trade Commissioner but has repeatedly refused to give a full account of all their meetings.