Peter Mandelson: How the Prince of Darkness grew to become his excellency

“I’m a fighter.. not a quitter,” Peter Mandelson roared on the Hartlepool election rely in 2001.

The then Labour MP had simply been returned to parliament 5 months after resigning from Tony Blair’s authorities, accused of serving to an Indian billionaire safe a British passport.

An official inquiry later cleared him of involvement however it was the second time he had been pressured to give up.

Mandelson had beforehand resigned as commerce secretary after it emerged that he had borrowed a considerable sum from a fellow cupboard minister to purchase a home.

Peter Mandelson and headline information have lengthy gone collectively.

Spool ahead 25 years and Lord Mandelson (as he now could be) will quickly be taking on residence within the opulent and not too long ago refurbished British embassy in Washington DC, the place he shall be launched at state events as “his excellency”, as is the customized.

It is a great distance from Hartlepool, within the post-industrial North-East of England, and one other political rebound for a Labour politician who at all times appears to be preventing for the following break.

He not too long ago campaigned onerous for the submit of Oxford College Chancellor however final month the previous Conservative chief Lord Hague beat him to it.

Washington ambassador shall be a substantial comfort.

Within the mid-Eighties, with Labour within the doldrums, Mandelson grew to become the get together’s marketing campaign director and commenced the inner battle of yanking the get together again from the left underneath Neil Kinnock.

By 1992 he had been elected as an MP after which performed a secretive position (with the codename “Bobby”) in serving to Tony Blair safe the Labour management.

His popularity as a Svengali-like operator was already effectively established.

Fixing, schmoozing and scheming behind the scenes, the spin physician who appeared to experience his nickname the “Prince of Darkness”.

On the coronary heart of New Labour, he was revered by admirers and seen as villain by many on the left.

In authorities he was a commerce secretary in Tony Blair’s first administration and enterprise secretary underneath Gordon Brown.

Between these roles he had been elevated to the Home of Lords and spent 4 years because the European Union’s Commerce Commissioner.

That is the political expertise Quantity 10 judges shall be priceless because the world braces for a second Trump presidency and the specter of world tariffs on imports to the US.

One of the pro-European members of the New Labour authorities, Lord Mandelson will even assist craft a British international coverage that seeks nearer ties to the EU whereas maintaining President Trump on facet.

With China, Ukraine and the way forward for NATO all areas of potential coverage friction it won’t be a quiet posting.

Because the UK’s man on the bottom in Washington DC, Lord Mandelson could have prepared entry to the Trump group.

He shall be anticipated to allure and cajole the incoming administration at a doubtlessly very delicate time for US/UK relations.

Lord Mandelson is unabashed about his community of connections and Downing Avenue sees that as a plus.

Within the years since stepping again from frontline politics he has made some huge cash via the advisory agency he co-founded, World Counsel.

However his connections and friendships with the world’s tremendous wealthy have come underneath scrutiny too.

In 2008 Lord Mandelson’s contacts with the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska put him again on the entrance pages.

In 2023, his former friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein hit the headlines.

A spokesman for the Labour peer stated: “Lord Mandelson very a lot regrets ever having been launched to Epstein.

“This connection has been a matter of public document for a while. He by no means had any form of skilled or enterprise relationship with Epstein in any type.”

Lord Mandelson just isn’t a baggage-free alternative for an enormous diplomatic job.

Quite a lot of Blair-era figures have returned to the centre of energy since Labour’s common election win. Not least Mr Blair’s former chief of workers Jonathan Powell who’s now the UK’s nationwide safety adviser.

In Lord Mandelson, Sir Keir Starmer has picked a political determine over a diplomat or a profession civil servant and Donald Trump will discover himself coping with a person on the coronary heart of Labour’s governing household.

Lord Mandelson shall be a bridge between a president and prime minister who appear temperamentally and politically miles aside.

The outgoing UK ambassador Karen Pierce is called the “Trump whisperer” inside Washington for her shut contacts with the incoming president’s group.

Having whispered across the corridors of Westminster for many years, Lord Mandelson will quickly be deploying his political crafty within the court docket of Donald Trump.