For nearly forty years, little has happened in Britain\u2019s Labour party without the seventy-two-year-old Lord (as he still is) pulling at least some of the strings. From early ally of Tony Blair to Britain\u2019s ambassador to Washington, he has enjoyed enormous success and heavily influenced political discourse. But now he\u2019s a pariah, disowned even by prot\u00e9g\u00e9s and long-term allies, and facing three investigations: one into his role in Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s appointment as a trade envoy in 2001; a second into possible fraud while a member of the European Commission from 2004 to 2008; and a British police probe into misconduct in public office.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Mandelson\u2019s lucrative consultancy business, Global Counsel, has collapsed<\/a> leaving his 21 percent stake worthless after clients bailed in droves. He had stepped down<\/a> as the consultancy\u2019s chairman in May 2024 as part of a restructuring that saw Jim Messina, the former Barack Obama aide, join the board when his own firm, Messina Group, took<\/a> a 20 percent stake in a deal valuing Global Counsel at around \u00a330 million.<\/p>\n In making his investment, Messina either did not know or did not care that media outlets in Britain had already revealed<\/a> that Mandelson maintained an association with Epstein after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.<\/p>\n Similarly, Keir Starmer, who has now admitted<\/a> he knew of the longevity of Mandelson\u2019s Epstein link, did not consider it to be an obstacle to appointing him to Britain\u2019s top diplomatic role. Mandelson took up the post in February 2025 but was sacked by Starmer only seven months later, after the first batch of Epstein emails released by the US Department of Justice revealed more details of his ambassador\u2019s post-conviction fraternization with Epstein.<\/p>\n Aided by friends in the media, Mandelson attempted to rehabilitate himself in January. The BBC indulged him with a long interview<\/a> in which he portrayed himself as an innocent fool for trusting Epstein. The Times even continued to treat him as a credible political commentator by publishing a piece in which he praised<\/a> Donald Trump and argued that \u201cin one night, the US had achieved more in Venezuela than the so-called rules-based order did in decades.\u201d<\/p>\n The reprieve was, however, short-lived. The release three weeks ago of more Epstein files revealed that Mandelson had sent the pedophile market-sensitive information while Britain\u2019s business secretary and had even suggested<\/a> encouraging Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, to \u201cmildly threaten\u201d one of his own cabinet colleagues over plans for taxing bankers\u2019 bonuses. Whatever the formal outcome of the three investigations, Mandelson is now so toxic that it is hard to imagine any way back into public life for him.<\/p>\n Mandelson\u2019s political career can be divided into three phases: consigliere to Tony Blair in the New Labour project from the 1980s to 1997; controversy-prone cabinet minister and European commissioner from 1997 to 2010; and arch-conspirator against the Left since 2010.<\/p>\n The first phase began in 1985 when Mandelson was appointed Labour\u2019s director of communications. It was a role that allowed him to give politicians aligned with his agenda media exposure, and he soon started promoting Blair, who had been elected to Parliament two years earlier. On becoming an MP himself in 1992, Mandelson backed Blair in a successful Labour leadership bid, opening the way for the two men to create what they called \u201cNew Labour.\u201d Essentially a cosmetic exercise \u2014 the policy substance being a continuation of Margaret Thatcher\u2019s neoliberalism \u2014 the role of Blair and Mandelson was to package it, literally, in red roses for the party faithful and voters already eager for a change of government.<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s election victory in 1997 opened a new phase in Mandelson\u2019s career, with him immediately becoming a roving minister without a portfolio and then, a year later, being promoted to the cabinet as secretary of state for trade and industry. His elevation was, however, short-lived: in December 1998, he was forced to resign after it emerged<\/a> that he had not declared an interest-free loan of \u00a3373,000 from a ministerial colleague to buy a house.<\/p>\n When I emailed Mandelson to tell him I started working for Jeremy Corbyn, he replied: \u2018It pains me more than I can say that you should be making such a sacrifice but it\u2019s your life.\u2019<\/p>\n Ten months later, Blair brought his ally back as Northern Ireland secretary only for him again to be forced to resign after just over a year amid allegations<\/a> that he had used his position to help a wealthy Indian businessman apply for British citizenship. Blair gave Mandelson a third chance in 2004 but at the safe distance of Brussels where he became one of Britain\u2019s European commissioners, a role he held until Blair\u2019s successor Gordon Brown surprised<\/a> Westminster by appointing him business secretary in October 2008.<\/p>\n The third phase of Mandelson\u2019s political career, after Labour\u2019s election defeat in 2010, saw him orchestrating a battle against the Left, whose support had been replenished by millennials angered by the Iraq war and the imposition of austerity after the bank crash. Mandelson backed David Miliband to replace Brown as Labour leader, but he was beaten by his brother Ed, who was supported by the Left. When Labour lost again in 2015, Ed Miliband resigned, triggering a leadership ballot that an outright left candidate, Jeremy Corbyn, won comfortably.<\/p>\n Mandelson despised Jeremy Corbyn and made no secret of it. With Blairites still in control of the party machine and dominant among its MPs, Mandelson and his allies made life extraordinarily difficult for the new leader. After voters backed Brexit in a referendum in 2016, Mandelson blamed Corbyn and encouraged a vote of no confidence in him by Labour MPs. Corbyn won the resulting second leadership election but there was no respite. In February 2017, Mandelson said<\/a>: \u201cI work every single day to bring forward the end of (Corbyn\u2019s) tenure in office . . . Every day I try to do something to rescue the Labour Party from his leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n Toward the end of that month, I started working for Corbyn as deputy director of strategy and communications. When I emailed Mandelson to tell him this, he replied saying: \u201cIt pains me more than I can say that you should be making such a sacrifice but it\u2019s your life.\u201d<\/p>\n It would prove to be anything but a sacrifice. When the prime minister, Theresa May, called a surprise general election that spring, it allowed Corbyn to escape the stifling confines of Westminster and do what he does best: go out across the country and rally support for his ideas. To the surprise of many, though not those of us working on the campaign, Labour won its biggest popular vote for twenty years and gained enough seats to deny the Tories a majority. As May clung to power by negotiating a deal with a group of Northern Ireland unionist MPs, Mandelson admitted that he had underestimated Corbyn and told the BBC: \u201cAn earthquake has happened in British politics and I did not foresee it.\u201d<\/p>\n With Corbyn\u2019s position buoyed by relative electoral success, Mandelson changed tack<\/a> and turned his attention to reversing Labour\u2019s policy of accepting the result of the EU referendum. Shrewdly, he knew the issue could be Corbyn\u2019s Achilles\u2019 heel because it split his support base: while many Labour activists were strongly Remain, the electorate in the majority of parliamentary seats held by Labour had voted Leave. When Labour\u2019s conference decided<\/a> to support a second referendum in 2018, the party doomed itself to being punished in Leave areas in any subsequent election. And, sure enough, it was when the vote came in December 2019.<\/p>\n The election defeat delivered Mandelson\u2019s primary goal: Corbyn had to resign. But who would he support to replace him? When asked this early in 2020 on a Guardian podcast<\/a> in which we both took part, Mandelson avoided giving a straight answer, and I sensed something Machiavellian afoot. At the time, Starmer was describing himself as Corbyn\u2019s friend and offering continuity on policy. The endorsement of the archenemy of the Left would not have been helpful. However, when the list of donors to Starmer\u2019s campaign was published after voting closed, nearly all of them were long-standing wealthy allies of Mandelson.<\/p>\n It was therefore no surprise that a year into Starmer\u2019s leadership, the Sunday Times reported<\/a> that Starmer was \u201cputting his faith\u201d in Mandelson \u201cto inject a dose of New Labour\u2019s \u2018winning mentality\u2019\u201d into his team. Soon afterward, Mandelson\u2019s influence became obvious in shadow cabinet selections, the ditching or dilution of progressive policies, and the suspension of Corbyn, who was still an MP, from the parliamentary party.<\/p>\n