Controversial British Treasury Minister Geoffrey Robinson resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet yesterday -- a year after he was investigated for his offshore savings in Bermuda.

Mr. Robinson, the Paymaster General, was clamping down on offshore tax investments when it emerged that he had privately transferred $640,000 into his own Bermuda trust accounts.

His business dealings have been the focus of major public scrutiny ever since the revelations -- about accounts in Bermuda and Guernsey -- were revealed in British broadsheet The Sunday Times last December.

Mr. Robinson finally stepped down from his Government position yesterday after he was pushed to the centre of another financial scandal.

He resigned when it was revealed he made an undeclared private loan of 373,000 to Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson.

Mr. Mandelson, one of the key advisers to Mr. Blair, also resigned for not declaring that he received the loan, to buy a house in west London.

Mr. Robinson did not refer to his Bermuda trust accounts in his resignation letter to the Prime Minister.

But he wrote: "I have been subjected to a persistent -- and I believe unfair -- set of allegations about my business affairs.

"I have already accepted responsibility and have apologised to the House of Commons for oversights in the past concerning registration of interests.

"But although my affairs have been under full political and media scrutiny for more than a year, it is clear that I have not misused my position either as an MP or Minister.'' Multi-millionaire Mr. Robinson first hit the headlines when news of his Bermuda trusts came to light.

He transferred the 380,000 ($640,000) into the Church Street-based International Trust Company of Bermuda in April 1991, on the last day of the tax year.

The money is reported to have come to the Island as a personal shareholding in his own family's 6.4 million property firm, Latchuser Ltd.

The company was wound up at a meeting in Bermuda in September 1997, four months after Mr. Robinson became a Minister.

Then Mr. Robinson was accused of double standards by Opposition Conservative MPs when he announced a Government scheme penalising those with more than 50,000 savings.

Mr. Robinson was not accused of breaking laws but he was exposed to fierce criticism by using offshore trusts for his own family and business affairs.

The investigation was run by Sir George Downey, the parliamentary commissioner for standards.

But Mr. Robinson clung onto his position until yesterday, when his loan to Mr.

Mandelson was revealed.

Mr. Blair, in a letter accepting Mr. Robinson's resignation, wrote: "I know that you have felt these past months hounded by the campaign against you.

"I want you to know, however, that what I remember and thank you for is your immense contribution to the Government.'' Mr. Robinson was not as high-ranking as Mr. Mandelson, who was also a close personal friend of Mr. Blair.

In his letter accepting Mr. Mandelson's resignation, Mr. Blair wrote: "You and I have been personal friends and the closest of political colleagues.

"It is no exaggeration to say that without your support and advice we would never have built New Labour.'' Bermuda's former Finance Minister Grant Gibbons warned the Island's reputation may have been tarnished when the initial Robinson controversy was reported in Britain.

Dr. Gibbons said descriptions of Bermuda as a tax haven were unfair, at a time when Bermuda's financial policies were being scrutinised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.