{"id":375189,"date":"2026-01-17T12:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T12:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/375189\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T12:44:09","slug":"he-needs-to-disappear-for-a-very-long-time-has-peter-mandelson-finally-run-out-of-spin-peter-mandelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/375189\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He needs to disappear for a very long time\u2019: has Peter Mandelson finally run out of spin? | Peter Mandelson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC\u2019s interview with Peter Mandelson<\/a> had offered ample evidence of the Labour peer\u2019s \u201cformidable political brain\u201d, according to Louis Mosley, UK head of the US data firm, Palantir Technologies.<\/p>\n

An indefensible error of judgment had been made by Mandelson, Mosley said in a panel discussion with Laura Kuenssberg after the airing of some of the 30-minute interview on her Sunday morning political show, but \u201che is a masterful interpreter of Trump and we now live in a world where that man will determine much of what happens, and we need people who can be that translation function\u201d.<\/p>\n

The capacity of Lord Mandelson for network building is undoubted. The former Labour<\/a> cabinet minister\u2019s fairground ride of a career suggests it is both his superpower and his kryptonite.<\/p>\n

He was withdrawn last September as US ambassador after emails emerged detailing his close relationship with the billionaire serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>. They revealed that he had advised his \u201cbest pal\u201d, as he described the American in 2003, to \u201cfight for early release\u201d on the eve of his sentencing in 2008 for soliciting prostitution and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution.<\/p>\n

Peter Mandelson was withdrawn as US ambassador after emails emerged detailing his relationship with his \u2018best pal\u2019 Jeffrey Epstein. Photograph: Department of Justice<\/p>\n

Mandelson\u2019s tendency to be drawn like a moth to a flame to those with power and wealth had let him down again. But Downing Street insiders say Mandelson had been appointed ambassador in the first place \u2013 despite the serious reservations of many, including the prime minister \u2013 thanks in large part to another relationship he had built with a quite different character, Keir Starmer\u2019s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. \u201cMandelson was a mentor to him,\u201d said one insider.<\/p>\n

As it happens, Palantir\u2019s Mosley, the grandson of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, is no stranger to Mandelson\u2019s charms either. Palantir was for years a client of Global Counsel, the strategic consultancy co-founded by Mandelson. During Mandelson\u2019s time as Britain\u2019s ambassador in the US, Mosley and Palantir hosted Starmer at the company\u2019s Washington offices.<\/p>\n

So for all of the condemnation and humiliation, Mandelson, 72, still has admirers, and the drive to go again, even if he has said that he knows public service is a thing of the past. \u201cWho knows what\u2019s next,\u201d Mandelson told Kuenssberg. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s next. I\u2019m not going to disappear and hide \u2013 that\u2019s not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandelson, who had already notched up two controversy-shrouded cabinet resignations before his latest dramatic fall from grace, had described himself as the \u201ceternal comeback kid\u201d after his appointment as Britain\u2019s man in Washington.<\/p>\n

Does he really believe he can secure the role of elder statesman again? If Mandelson\u2019s article about Venezuela<\/a> in Michael Gove\u2019s Spectator magazine and interview with the BBC were attempts at that, they were not sure-footed ones.<\/p>\n

During the interview, Mandelson was pressed to apologise to Epstein\u2019s victims. \u201cIf I was complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise, but I was not culpable, I was not knowledgable about what he was doing and I regret, and I will regret to my dying day, the fact that powerless women who were denied a voice were not given the protection they were entitled to expect from the American system.\u201d The line was never likely to hold.<\/p>\n

During his interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Mandelson was pressed to apologise to Epstein\u2019s victims. He did not. Photograph: Jeff Overs\/BBC\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Among those who condemned the interview was Ayesha Hazarika, a former Ed Miliband press adviser, who described it as a \u201cslap in the face to Epstein victims\u201d. By Monday evening, an apology was delivered. \u201cI was wrong to believe him following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards,\u201d Mandelson said. \u201cI apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Westminster, the statement confirmed to some the suspicion that Mandelson struggled to apply his media expertise to his own life. \u201cWhat on earth was Peter playing at?\u201d asked one cabinet minister. \u201cWhy would he go on TV on Sunday and then not apologise? It\u2019s totally mad. He needs to disappear for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second cabinet source said: \u201cPeter managed to create several days of headlines on his relationship with Epstein by failing to apologise. He just doesn\u2019t get it. It\u2019s been damaging for Keir. It just reminds everyone that he appointed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why did Mandelson not apologise to the women in the first instance? One person familiar with his thinking said that Mandelson did not want to \u201cbracket\u201d himself \u201cby implication with those who either participated in Epstein\u2019s grooming activities or simply knew about them and chose to ignore them\u201d.<\/p>\n

He had made a \u201csplit-second judgment\u201d in how to frame his apology in the BBC interview. He felt strongly that people had covered up for Epstein, that \u201cmoney and power protected Epstein rather than those he preyed on\u201d, and wanted to say so, the source said. Mandelson became concerned though that his comments were being perceived as him \u201cshunning any personal responsibility for not believing the women\u201d. That, he did not want to do \u2013 and so he made his statement and felt happier after he had done it.<\/p>\n

Another source suggested the initial lack of an apology was likely linked to the Labour peer\u2019s experience of being a gay politician of \u201ca certain generation\u201d. \u201cThere is a real sensitivity about the idea that he could be in any way complicit in the sexual abuse of young people which he wasn\u2019t,\u201d the friend said. \u201cI think the old spin doctor in him didn\u2019t want headlines of \u2018Mandy says sorry for paedo friend\u2019.<\/p>\n

Louis Mosley, the UK head of Palantir, said Mandelson was a \u2018masterful interpreter of Trump\u2019. Photograph: Evan Vucci\/AP<\/p>\n

Of Mandelson\u2019s recent frame of mind, the source went on: \u201cHe has been in a pretty bad way \u2013 there have been tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been one mess after another. Soon after his return to the UK, Mandelson was forced into an embarrassing apology after being photographed urinating against a wall outside George Osborne\u2019s Notting Hill home after dinner with the former Tory chancellor. \u201cThe night had to end a little early as Osborne\u2019s kid had fallen ill and then Peter didn\u2019t want to disturb them further by knocking to use the toilet while he waited for an Uber,\u201d said a friend.<\/p>\n

He appears to have taken the blows quite personally. \u201cThe 5am call to the ambassador\u2019s residence telling him he was being withdrawn was on Reinaldo\u2019s birthday,\u201d said a source in reference to Mandelson\u2019s husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva. \u201cPeter is very cross with a few people. He is pretty cross with Keir.\u201d<\/p>\n

One point that is particularly sore, say friends, is that he was not given an opportunity before being withdrawn to explain the context of the Epstein emails to the prime minister, who attended the Labour peer\u2019s wedding at London\u2019s Marylebone town hall in October 2023.<\/p>\n

A source suggested that a number of people around the prime minister and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had always felt that Mandelson\u2019s appointment was fraught with danger. It did not take much to convince them that there was no mileage in defending him further. \u201cKeir\u2019s instinct had always been to keep Peter at arm\u2019s length,\u201d said the source. \u201cHe was reluctant to go to Mandelson\u2019s wedding but he was persuaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

That instinct to keep a distance has not been shared by everyone, including leading lights in Starmer\u2019s cabinet. In the opposition years, as part of attempts to rid Labour of Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes, Mandelson was a member of a Sunday supper party held at the Kennington home of Roger Liddle, a fellow Labour peer and longstanding friend. Regular guests included the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and his partner, Joe Dancey, himself a former Mandelson adviser.<\/p>\n

A number of people around the prime minister felt Mandelson\u2019s appointment was fraught with danger. Photograph: Carl Court\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Others who frequented the Georgian home for roast lamb and fine wine were Matt Doyle, formerly a spokesperson for Tony Blair and later to be Starmer\u2019s director of communications, Matt Pound, who is today political secretary to chancellor Rachel Reeves, and Matthew Faulding who stood down as secretary of the parliamentary Labour party last November. Streeting is said to have joked that a blue plaque might be put up outside Liddle\u2019s home given its role in the reinvention of Labour. \u201cMaybe we will see Mandelson back by the side of prime minister Streeting?\u201d a source suggested archly.<\/p>\n

After four decades in frontline politics and a successful business career, Mandelson does not need to work. Company accounts for Global Counsel published earlier this month, show that it had repaid him \u00a31.3m in loans in the last financial year as he cut his ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter has nothing to do with Global Counsel now,\u201d a source said. He returned from his grand residence on Washington\u2019s Massachusetts Avenue to his rented four-bedroom home in Pewsey Vale, Wiltshire. Even now, in his eighth decade, few believe the peace and quiet will be enough for him. \u201cPeter is addicted to the political life,\u201d said a friend. \u201cHe has to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC\u2019s interview with Peter Mandelson had offered ample evidence of the Labour peer\u2019s \u201cformidable political brain\u201d, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-375189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}