Tony Blair once said his work would be finished when Labour learned to love spin master Peter Mandelson. It does now, writes MARK HENNESSY
THE LABOUR Party has never liked Peter Mandelson. It has feared him, suspected him, loathed him, often; but it never liked him. Yesterday, though, they stood in their thousands before him, cheering and applauding.
For Mandelson, who twice resigned from the cabinet only to return following Gordon Brown’s call a year ago, has what Labour supporters desperately desire: an all-consuming passion to win next year’s election.
And he delivered a masterclass performance: presidential in tone, employing self-deprecatory humour and an unusual humility that would not have been part of the Mandelson of old.
“I love working for this party and those who work so hard for it – even if, at times, perhaps not everyone in it has loved me. I understand that. I made enemies, sometimes needlessly.
“I was sometimes too careless with the feelings and views of others, but please accept this. It was for one reason only. I was in a hurry to return this party to where it should be – in government,” he said.
The crowd glowed with warmth, the applause frequent. “I know that Tony [Blair] said our project would only be complete when the Labour Party learned to love Peter Mandelson.
“I think perhaps he set the bar a little too high, though I am trying my best,” said the first secretary of state, lord president of the council and secretary for business skills and innovation.
Bar Brown, and perhaps not even him, Mandelson is the most powerful man in Britain and certainly has Brown’s fate in his hands. So far, it has been a loyal hand. Behind the smiles, however, Mandelson is still the ruthless strategist who directed two of Labour’s three election victories since 1997 and influenced the third from Brussels.
Faced with mounting unpopularity and fears of an electoral wipeout next year, some in the party now argue that it must swing to the left and abandon the legacy of the Blair era. Labour, he said, had never been more needed in government, but it will not fend off “old Tory attitudes” by allowing “ourselves to fall into old Labour thinking”.
The words were soft, but the warning was clear to those within the party who would offer a challenge. The tiger may purr, but it still has very sharp claws.