A SURPRISED and delighted Peter Mandelson has spoken of his pride at being drafted back into Gordon Brown's cabinet and expressed the hope that his tenure as business and enterprise secretary will prove to be "third time lucky".
The British prime minister shocked Westminster with his decision to recall the old friend-turned-bitter adversary who was famously forced to resign twice from Tony Blair's government.
Both men made light of their long-standing personal feud with its roots in Mr Mandelson's decision to back Mr Blair to succeed the late John Smith as Labour leader. Mr Mandelson said they had had their "ups and downs" but pointed out they had known each other for over 20 years and "originally worked very well together".
Mr Brown, meanwhile, praised Mr Mandelson's performance as Britain's EU commissioner, saying he needed "serious people for serious times" and described Mr Mandelson's appointment as being in the national interest. "Whatever the ups and downs have been in the past, everybody has got to come together and make sure we as a nation come through this," Mr Brown said.
That cabinet reinvention also saw the return of veteran Margaret Beckett, as housing minister, and of Brown loyalist Nick Brown as chief whip. Geoff Hoon moved to transport, replacing the departing Ruth Kelly, while Ed Miliband was appointed to a revamped climate and energy department.
John Hutton moved from business to defence, vacated by Des Browne who previously doubled-up as Scottish secretary and who chose to leave the government rather than give up the defence portfolio. Downing Street confirmed that Baroness Ashton will be the nominee to replace Mr Mandelson as EU commissioner in Brussels.
Mr Mandelson, who previously served as both trade and Northern Ireland secretary, gave up his Commons seat when appointed EU commissioner. Although he sidestepped the question of his elevation yesterday, Mr Brown is expected to appoint him to the Lords where, the Liberal Democrats complained, the new minister will not be subject to quite the same amount of democratic scrutiny to which he would be exposed in the Commons.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, accused Mr Brown of a stunning failure of judgment in appointing Mr Mandelson. They maintained yesterday's failure to ring the changes in the major offices of state showed Mr Brown to be weak.
William Hague said: "In bringing back Peter Mandelson, the man who created Labour spin, he has broken his promise to govern in an open and honest way . . . By leaving in place a chancellor [Alistair Darling] who has failed and a foreign secretary [David Miliband] who has undermined him at every opportunity, Gordon Brown has also been exposed as weak."