Chequered career of New Labour's 'Dark Lord'

Helen Corbett and David Lynch profile a man whose comebacks may be over

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LORD Peter Mandelson has made a career of comebacks - from spin doctor to returning to cabinet after quitting twice - but has now been axed as the UK’s top diplomat in Washington over his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

As Sir Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the US, he was the first political appointment to the role in decades and took on the role as Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Peter Mandelson started out as a Labour communications director in 1985 and was first elected as an MP in 1992. He served in the cabinets of Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

The Labour grandee resigned twice from cabinet, in 1998 and 2001, was Britain's European commissioner between 2004 and 2008, and then made an astonishing return in 2008 under Mr Brown, who made him a peer to become business secretary.

A linchpin of the New Labour project from its birth in the early 1990s, Lord Mandelson’s ability to manipulate the levers of power from the shadows earned him monikers such as “the Prince of Darkness” and “the Dark Lord”.