Who is Peter Mandelson? From New Labour fixer to party grandee

As Lord Mandelson prepares to work with re-elected President Donald Trump post-inauguration, The Independent looks at his rise from one of the UK’s first spin doctors

Peter Mandelson was born into Labour politics.

The prime minister’s pick for US ambassador is the grandson of former Labour home and foreign secretary Herbert Morrison. And, aged just 12, he was invited to Downing Street by his neighbours, then prime minister Harold Wilson and his wife Mary.

The young Peter is said to have been “dazzled” at the time by the opportunity to sit in the prime minister’s chair. But Lord Mandelson’s work as a political fixer for the party has seen him go on to spend five decades at the heart of Labour politics.

As he prepares to work with re-elected President Donald Trump post-inauguration, The Independent looks at his rise from one of the UK’s first spin doctors.

Lord Mandelson earned the nick named the ‘Prince of darkness’ (PA)

Lord Mandelson’s first taste of Labour politics was his 1979 election to Lambeth Borough Council, famously where Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeny also cut his teeth working for now environment secretary Steve Reed.

However, the hard left council was led by a man dubbed “Red Ted” and so the young Mandelson stood down just three years later, disillusioned with Labour politics.

After a stint in TV, he was appointed by former Labour leader Neil Kinnock as the party’s director of communications, where his status as a political heavyweight began to take shape.

Despite defeat in the 1987 general election, before Margaret Thatcher’s third term in Downing Street, Labour picked up tens of seats and its media operation won praise.

His return to government was surrounded by controversy (PA)

He was selected as Labour’s candidate for the safe seat of Hartlepool in 1990, winning the seat at the 1992 general election, the last before the rise of Sir Tony Blair and New Labour.

The party was on course to take power from a tired Tory Party led by Sir John Major before the unexpected death of then Labour leader John Smith.

Lord Mandelson then found himself at the heart of a feud which would dominate British politics, Blair v Brown, after he backed Sir Tony for the leadership.

As a reward for his support, he was made director of Labour’s landslide 1997 general election campaign and was then handed a role in government.

He was later handed responsibility for trade and industry - experience on which he is expected to draw in his dealings as ambassador to the US. Lord Mandelson will be responsible for persuading Mr Trump not to batter Britain with a series of tariffs on UK exports.

Peter Mandelson, right, with John Prescott, centre, and Neil Kinnock at London’s Festival Hall after Labour’s election victory in 1997 (PA Archive)

The former spin doctor attempted to weather his own media storm, after details emerged of a secret financial arrangement with his government colleague Geoffrey Robinson, in which he had been handed a £373,000 interest-free loan to purchase his Notting Hill home.

The scrutiny became too much and Sir Tony, assisted by another Labour grandee and spin doctor, decided he had to go.

After briefly returning to the cabinet, Lord Mandelson had his eyes on Europe and took a job in 2004 as Britain’s European commissioner for trade - a role which may cause friction with EU-hating Mr Trump’s administration.

But it was four years later Lord Mandelson’s status as a Labour grandee would finally be sealed. In a controversial move, Mr Brown sought to shore up his government by bringing the former spin doctor back to UK politics by handing him a peerage and a role as business secretary.

Lord Mandelson becomes the first political appointee to the US ambassador role for almost 50 years, raising questions about how his record will go down in Mr Trump’s White House.

He will face scrutiny over his roles with lobbying firm Global Counsel, his links with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his views on China, Europe and globalism in a time of the rise of America First.

A shock report by JPMorgan Chase last year revealed the “particularly close relationship” between Lord Mandelson and the late paedophile Epstein.

The dossier laid bare the senior political figure’s ties to the late paedophile – who was close enough to the former Labour cabinet minister to call him “Petie”.

The report also suggests that Lord Mandelson stayed at Epstein’s New York home in June 2009 – when he was still Mr Brown’s business secretary and the financier was serving 18 months in prison for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Pictures of the pair together have repeatedly resurfaced, with photos being circulated on social media after it emerged he would be appointed US ambassador.

There is no suggestion Mr Mandelson, who was friends with Epstein’s former lover Ghislaine Maxwell, had any knowledge of the paedophile’s wrongdoing.

In 2011, Virginia Roberts – who claims she was a sex slave to Epstein – said that she was introduced to Mr Mandelson at a dinner party at the financier’s house in New York.

She said: “I never heard of Jeffrey knowing Tony Blair, but he did know Peter Mandelson. I remember him being at the house in New York and I was introduced to him at a dinner party.

“He and Jeffrey talked business together. I assumed they were in business together. I was never asked to give him [Mandelson] a massage.”

Lord Mandelson’s spokesman has said he “very much regrets” the connection with Epstein while allies have said the pair met on no more than five or six occasions.