Peter Mandelson, MP.

  • Minister Without Portfolio (May 1997 to June 1998).
  • Secretary for Trade & Industry  (June 1998 to December 1998). Resigned after unregistered loan scandal.

Minister without Portfolio takes control, of the government, of the Labour party, of the press etc....... (9th August 1997). [top]

While the Prime Minister  Tony Blair was away from the country on holiday, Peter Mandelson's increasingly powerful role came under intense media scrutiny.

The Tories accused the Minister without Portfolio of "midsummer madness verging on megalomania" after he criticised journalists who asked him to define his job. Mr Mandelson, who at the time was not a Cabinet minister, had told a press conference that he was "minding the shop" with John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, while Tony Blair is on holiday.

Asked to explain his job, he said to Nick Robinson, a BBC journalist, that he had "never heard such a stream of vainglorious self-indulgent questions coming from members of the media.I am a minister in search of a portfolio . . . The only people, I think, who are preoccupied with my role are preoccupied with it because they are preoccupied by themselves."

He said he did not understand why political journalists accused him of managing the news. "Well I'm sorry if you're not doing your job properly such as you have to have me write your scripts and fix your headlines."

Asked by another journalist to explain who was taking decisions while the Prime Minister was away, he said Mr Blair "has full confidence in his deputy to mind the shop while he is away. . . I, as usual, just sweep up."

Mr Mandelson also recounted how he had heard a Labour MP criticising him over the Government's handling of the royal yacht. The MP "is entitled to get things wrong, completely and comprehensively wrong, as I will point out to him," Mr Mandelson said. "Is anyone going to lose any sleep over that? Not me."

He then went on the BBC's World At One to talk about the Government's first weeks in office. Again, he criticised the interviewer, who asked him to explain his wide-ranging role.

Martha Kearney asked him why he had been answering questions on subjects ranging from Lord Simon of Highbury's BP shares to the royal yacht. He said: "I think the reason why media people like you like talking about news management is because you really rather prefer talking about yourselves and your lives in the media than talking about things that interest the bulk of the population," said Mr Mandelson.

As the discussion became increasingly heated, Mr Mandelson offered a "piece of friendly advice" to Ms Kearney. He said: "People . . . are not so interested in you and your work in the media as they are in their own lives."

The BBC said afterwards that it had received a "considerable number" of complaints from listeners about the minister's treatment of the presenter.

Brazil's opposition party call Mandelson 'a bootlicker' (24th July 1998). [top]
Peter Mandelson was embroiled in an embarrassing diplomatic row last night after the minister without portfolio returned from Brazil accused of interfering in the country's forthcoming election campaign.

The opposition Workers' Party lodged a formal complaint with the British embassy after Mr Mandelson gave a newspaper interview appearing to denigrate its candidate for president as "backward-looking" and out of tune with new Labour thinking.

His remarks during the course of a four-day visit to Brazil at the invitation of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso provoked a political uproar in South America's biggest democracy.

Marco Aurelio Garcia, the Workers' Party foreign affairs spokesman, said Mr Mandelson had "either through extreme naivete or irresponsibility, accepted the role of vulgar propagandist" on behalf of the ruling Centrist party.

The row erupted after a university lecture in Brasilia in which Mr Mandelson openly expressed support for the re-election of President Cardoso, who is close to Tony Blair and shares the Prime Minister's vision of a "third way" between state intervention and the free market.

Having praised his host, Mr Mandelson went on to describe the rival presidential candidate, Luiz Inacio da Silva - known as "Lula" - as "a retrograde who would leave me surprised if elected". Later, he said that Lula's party was "retarded and with conservative ideas that are not compatible with the ideals of the new Left".

Lula, the former leader of the steel workers' union, wrote to Mr Blair expressing his repugnance at Mr Mandelson's comments. He said they "smelled of having been ordered by Cardoso in what appears to be a shameless propaganda exercise".

In a statement, the party lambasted Mr Mandelson as "an unquestionable marketeer for the current Brazilian president, gauging from the size of his boot-licking posture".

 

Mandelson Resigns over 'Secret Loan(24th December 1998). [top]

Geoffrey Robinson

 

Unanswered Questions Regarding the Mandelson Loan (24th December 1998). [top]
There is one aspect to the current controversy that seems to have escaped the attention of the media. Yet it promises to explode a potentially bigger scandal exposing the hypocrisy at the heart of New Labour.

The loan from Geoffrey Robinson to Peter Mandelson was so secret it apparently was not even shared with the building society from which Mr Mandelson obtained a further loan. It was also apparently a mystery to mandelson's many friends, including Tony Blair. Mr Mandelson kept his mouth shut and so did Mr Robinson.

So how did word of the secret loan leak? And why does it appear that word of it was apparently first disseminated from a source within the Treasury? Could it be that the unnamed person at the Treasury who apparently bears some animosity towards Mr Mandelson had access to the only third party that was made aware of the arrangement - that is: the Inland Revenue, through Mr Mandelson's and Mr Robinson's tax returns?

And if so, what are Treasury officials doing obtaining access to taxpayer returns?

It is also clear that Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson are, if not close friends, then at least close colleagues.

  • Is it conceivable that Tony Blair is unaware of his friend's home address, of the date of its purchase, and of its value to the nearest 100,000 pounds?
  • Is it conceivable that he is completely unaware of his friend's financial situation?.
  • Did he not find it remarkable that a close colleague, a subordinate, was able to purchase such a property on an MP's salary?.

In any other walk of life, such a discrepancy between the cost of a house and the purchaser's salary  would provoke, at least, comment.

One could argue that Mandelson's superior should have been concerned at the implications of such a discrepancy. What possible explanation could there be for Mr Blair's complete lack of interest in his friend's new house? Is it that he is so cocooned in his own privileged lifestyle that a shortfall of a mere £300,000 in purchasing power is not worth commenting upon? Is it that he is sufficiently out of touch that he has no grasp of property prices, mortgage costs or the cost of living? Is he really that naive?

Tony Blair has demonstrated that he is an astute politician who has climbed to the top of the greasy pole, with considerable help from Peter Mandelson. Either such an obviously intelligent and capable man was fully aware of the realities of the situation, or he had so little interest in one of his closest confidants that he missed such a glaring mismatch.

Which explanation presents him in a better light as a leader?

[top]

Back to the Labour Exposed page.