Lord Peter Mandelson is predicted to be introduced as UK ambassador to the USA whereas Sir Keir Starmer prepares for a Donald Trump presidency.
The prime minister is claimed to consider Lord Mandelson has the commerce experience and networking talents to bolster the UK’s pursuits throughout a fragile interval for relations with the US.
Lord Mandelson, 71, final served in authorities 14 years in the past when Gordon Brown was prime minister.
The Labour grandee has lengthy been seen as one of many main candidates for the job. He’ll exchange Dame Karen Pierce, whose service in Washington DC is predicted to conclude in early 2025.
Lord Mandelson is commonly described as one of many key architects of New Labour. He was the Labour MP for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, throughout which period he served as secretary of state for Northern Eire.
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In 1998, Sir Tony fired the person who later served as enterprise secretary for failing to reveal a house mortgage from a senior minister.
Quickly after his return, he was compelled to stop as soon as extra attributable to a passport scandal involving the billionaire businessmen, the Hinduja brothers. When he was elected to the Hartlepool seat in 2001, he famously declared that he was a “fighter not a quitter”.
He was later named Britain’s EU commissioner by Sir Tony.
Final month he risked infuriating Mr Trump after he steered he may mix the job with one other position. He mentioned changing into the UK’s man in Washington was not “incompatible” with being the subsequent chancellor of the College of Oxford.
He later misplaced that specific contest to William Hague however remained the frontrunner for the US position because the Labour authorities got here below rising strain to woo the president-elect.
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Relations between the 2 are strained, after Mr Trump’s election marketing campaign group hit out at Labour and accused it of making an attempt to intrude within the election, in a row over UK activists serving to the Democratic Celebration.
Sir Keir’s overseas secretary David Lammy has additionally tried to minimize feedback he made previously through which he referred to as Donald Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath”.
In relation to coping with the Trump administration, Lord Mandelson has steered that Britain has to “navigate our approach via this and have, I’m afraid, the perfect of each worlds”.
“We’ve bought to discover a option to have our cake and eat it,” he mentioned.
In November, he additionally advised BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that he was “extra in favour of a brand new relationship reasonably than a particular one” with the US. Pushed additional on whether or not he would have an interest within the Washington position, the previous authorities minister mentioned: “I might be very certainly in giving recommendation about commerce to whoever is appointed.”
Weeks earlier than Labour entered No 10 this summer time, he resigned from the board of his lobbying agency, International Counsel.
On the time his resignation prompted hypothesis he can be free for a doable authorities position.
Earlier this yr he dominated out a return to frontline politics after the reported part-sale of International Counsel to Barack Obama’s former polling guru, Jim Messina.
On the time Lord Mandelson, as soon as dubbed the “Darkish Lord” for his position as a New Labour spin physician, advised The Telegraph: “I’ll proceed to all the time be a cheerleader and champion of a Labour authorities however I don’t intend to be a member of it.”
In March he raised eyebrows when he advised Sir Keir he may stand to “shed a couple of kilos, and that will be an enchancment”.
The transfer seemed to be a bid at even-handedness after he hit out on the then-prime minister Rishi Sunak’s infamous slim-fit fits and thin ties, saying they “diminish him reasonably than increase him” on his podcast How To Win An Election.
