The comeback kid 'Prince of Darkness' who lost top jobs three times

Peter Mandelson has an extraordinary talent for securing jobs at the top of government, but an even more extraordinary one for leaving them in a blaze of controversy.

- Kiran Stacey

When he was - startlingly - reappointed to the cabinet by his former nemesis Gordon Brown in 2008, he overheard a conversation between two senior civil servants in his new business department.

Brian Bender, who was planning his retirement the following spring, told Mandelson's new principle private secretary, Richard Abel: "Your job is to make sure I go before Peter does."

Mandelson, who started his career in Labour politics as a councillor in south London in 1979, has now resigned or been sacked from three top-level political jobs in three different decades, having served three different prime ministers.

His departure as Washington ambassador after revelations about his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein could be the final full stop to a rollercoaster political career.

But then, with a man who called one of the chapters in his memoir "Comeback kid", it is never wise to write him off.

"Peter is by miles one of the most talented politicians and thinkers in Labour of the last 20 years," said Charlie Falconer, a veteran of the Blair years.

"He is so compelling - whenever he talks he does so clearly and convincingly, and he normally gets his way.

But part of that is because he is uninhibited to say and do things others might not, and that brings with it danger too."

As the grandson of the former Labour home secretary Herbert Morrison, he was steeped in politics from his early childhood and became a councillor in Lambeth in 1979 at the age of just 25.