That’s all, folks! Why Peter Mandelson’s not coming back

He played a pivotal role in the creation of New Labour. Tony Blair liked to quip that his mission to transform the party would be complete when it had “learnt to love Peter Mandelson”. It never quite did. Yet Blair, his best friend in politics, then felt he had no choice but to fire the other man from New Labour cabinets – not once, but twice. Only for Mandelson then to rise again in the guise of an EU commissioner. Gordon Brown, close friend turned bitter enemy turned ally of convenience, brought him back from Brussels as deputy prime minister in a desperate and ultimately vain attempt to save the fortunes of his Labour government.

During Labour’s long years exiled from power after the 2010 election defeat, Mandelson kept himself occupied making money in global consultancy. Then, just before last Christmas, a third Labour prime minister decided that his often acute political skills were valuable enough to be worth the high level of risk which has always accompanied employing Mandelson. When other, more conventional choices were available, Keir Starmer was persuaded that he needed the peculiar talents of the fixer and networker famous for being able to “see round corners” to navigate the perilous relationship with Donald Trump.

That appointment has proved to be a seriously mistaken judgement. Mandelson was fired as the UK’s ambassador in Washington less than 24 hours after the prime minister was defending him from Tory attack in the House of Commons while insisting that he had confidence in his man in DC. What did for Mandelson was not his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein per se. That entanglement was known about long before he secured the plummest role in the diplomatic corps. It was one of the reasons the appointment raised many eyebrows and dropped some jaws in both the Foreign Office and among Labour MPs.

It has always been a weakness of Mandelson to be beguiled by the worlds of big money, influence and glamour – or the patina of it. What did for him was the content of a cache of emails which have exposed undeniable and unsurvivable details about his relationship with America’s most notorious paedophile. It has been revealed that Mandelson encouraged a man he described as his “best pal” to “fight for early release” after Epstein’s convictions for soliciting a child for prostitution in 2008. Even more damningly, he added: “I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened. I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.” He continued: “Everything can be turned into an opportunity” – a motto of Mandelson’s own chequered life.

He simply could not survive these messages – which “completely disgusted” the Blairite cabinet minister Wes Streeting – coming to light. Realising it was untenable to try to save him, No 10 abandoned any hope of keeping him in post until after Trump’s state visit to the UK next week. Downing Street is insisting that due process and appropriate vetting took place before his appointment. It is also protesting that the prime minister and his staff didn’t have access to the emails revealed by Bloomberg. Ministers are pointing the finger at the now ex-ambassador for not disclosing to the prime minister the extent and the depth of his relationship with Epstein. These alibis won’t be good enough for those, to be found on the Labour benches of the Commons as well as the opposition ones, saying this raises acute questions about the judgement of the prime minister.

As for Mandelson, he has earned an extraordinary entry in the historical ledgers as the only person to have been ejected from three different high-profile government offices as a result of separate scandals in a period spanning more than a quarter of a century. In the past, I would have hesitated to pronounce the end of the public career of a man with such an extraordinary and apparently limitless capacity for reinvention. This time, though, I think he has finally used up his last life.

Photograph by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images