Starmer can forget Mandelson and his flaws but not what he stood for

Rachel Sylvester

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Not many people know that Peter Mandelson was named after Peter Rabbit, but it is somehow appropriate.

While Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail politicians were busy gathering berries in the Westminster forest, naughty Peter was always sneaking off into Mr McGregor’s garden - or Geoffrey Robinson’s penthouse, or the Hinduja brothers’ offices or Oleg Deripaska’s yacht.

With his love of adventure, his attraction to risk and his brightly coloured coat, Mandelson has more than once nearly been turned into rabbit pie, but he went too far when he ventured into Jeffrey Epstein’s lair. He compounded the spectacular misjudgment by sending cringingly sycophantic emails to the convicted paedophile after he had been found guilty to suggest that he might have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. The man who once described himself as a “fighter not a quitter” will not be able to escape this time.

It was predictable that the appointment of the man labelled the Prince of Darkness as British ambassador to Washington would blow up in the prime minister's face. Mandelson has always been dazzled by glamour and celebrity - even more than the power he has been surrounded with for most of the past 30 years. Loathed and admired in equal measure at Westminster, he is a magnet for media attention.

“My job is to stay below the radar, not on the radar,” he said when he took the job, but that was never going to happen. Though he spent much of his career operating in the shadows, whether as a spin doctor or a diplomat, he has always loved the limelight.