Peter Mandelson


The Lord Mandelson

Mandelson in 2025
British Ambassador to the United States
In office
10 February 2025[1] – 11 September 2025
MonarchCharles III
PresidentDonald Trump
Prime MinisterSir Keir Starmer
Preceded byDame Karen Pierce
Succeeded byJames Roscoe (acting)
First Secretary of State
In office
5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byJohn Prescott[a]
Succeeded byWilliam Hague
Lord President of the Council
In office
5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byBaroness Royall of Blaisdon
Succeeded bySir Nick Clegg
Secretary of State
for Business, Innovation and Skills
[b]
President of the Board of Trade
In office
3 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byJohn Hutton
Succeeded byVince Cable
In office
27 July 1998 – 23 December 1998
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byMargaret Beckett
Succeeded byStephen Byers
European Commissioner for Trade
In office
22 November 2004 – 3 October 2008
PresidentJosé Manuel Barroso
Preceded byPascal Lamy
Succeeded byCatherine Ashton
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office
11 October 1999 – 24 January 2001
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byMo Mowlam
Succeeded byJohn Reid
Minister without Portfolio
In office
2 May 1997 – 27 July 1998
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byBrian Mawhinney
Succeeded byCharles Clarke
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
13 October 2008
Life Peer
Member of Parliament
for Hartlepool
In office
9 April 1992 – 8 September 2004
Preceded byTed Leadbitter
Succeeded byIain Wright
Personal details
Born
Peter Benjamin Mandelson

(1953-10-21) 21 October 1953
Hendon, Middlesex, England
Political partyLabour
Spouse(s)
Reinaldo Avila da Silva
(m. 2023)
RelativesLord Morrison of Lambeth (grandfather)
EducationHendon County Grammar School
Alma materSt Catherine's College, Oxford
Signature
Nickname(s)Prince of Darkness[2]

Peter Benjamin Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British politician for the Labour Party. He helped to found the so-called 'New Labour' with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992-2004.

Lord Mandelson lost his job twice, once in 1998 for not declaring a loan he was given to buy a house, and once in 2001 for trying to arrange a passport for an Indian businessman who had given £1,000,000 to the Labour Party. He later made a speech claiming to have "inner steel".

After Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, he made Mandelson a Life Peer, and some newspapers have called him "the most powerful man in the Labour Party".

In 2025, he became the British Ambassador to the United States. Mandelson was fired by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on September 11, 2025, following the publication in The Sun newspaper of supportive emails he had sent to convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein after his arrest in 2008.[3]

Mandelson is gay and was outed in 1998 by openly gay journalist Matthew Parris.[4]

Notes

  1. Office vacant from 27 June 2007 to 5 June 2009
  2. Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform between 2008 and 2009; Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 1998

References

  1. "UK must respect Trump's mandate, new US ambassador tells BBC". BBC News. 10 February 2025. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  2. "Lord Mandelson: 'Dark lord' of New Labour strikes back as UK ambassador to US". The Independent. 20 December 2024. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
  3. "Lord Peter Mandelson Sacked As Ambassador To US". politicshome.com. 11 September 2025. Retrieved 11 September 2025.
  4. BBC to replay clip of Mandelson being outed

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