Former British deputy prime minister and European Union Trade Commissioner Lord Peter Mandelson was expected to be named as the new Labor government’s ambassador to the United States. File photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI |
License PhotoDec. 20 (UPI) — Former British deputy prime minister and European Union Trade Commissioner Lord Peter Mandelson was expected to be named as the new Labor government’s ambassador to the United States.
The Labor Party patriarch who held a series of top ministerial jobs in the cabinets of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before becoming a life peer in the House of Lords, is anticipated to replace Dame Karen Pierce in January to take on the task of steering U.K.-relations with Donald Trump‘s incoming administration — particularly on the thorny issue of trade.
Trump has threatened that job one upon taking the White House will be to slap tariffs of up to 20% on America’s trading partners, which in the case of Britain could cost $27.5 billion as the increased end cost to U.S. consumers and businesses hits exports of British goods and services.
Mandelson, 71, who earned the moniker “Prince of Darkness” for his alleged Machiavellian methods as Labor’s communications director in the late 1980s, will be the first political appointee to the post since the late Peter Jay in the 1976-1979 Labor government of Prime Minister James Callaghan.
A Downing Street source told the BBC selecting a politician over a career diplomat or civil service official “shows just how importantly we see our relationship with the Trump administration.”
“We’re sending someone close to the prime minister with unrivaled political and policy experience, particularly on the crucial issue of trade,” the No. 10 source added.
“He’s the ideal candidate to represent the U.K.’s economic and security interests in the U.S.A.”
Mandelson, who will have the unenviable task of trying to advance a trade deal with the United States that does not preclude potential deals with the EU that has eluded Britain for four years since formally quitting the single market at the end of 2020, has admitted that should Trump make good on his blanket tariffs threat, Britain would need to walk a tightrope between the United States and the EU.
“We have got to navigate our way through this and have, I’m afraid, the best of both worlds. We have got to find a way to have our cake and eat it,” he said.
As well as the backing of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his chief of staff and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Mandelson also has the support of Reform U.K. party leader Nigel Farage who has close relationships with both Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance with whom he held talks at Mar-a-Lago in Florida this week.
Farage described Mandelson as a highly intelligent individual well capable of “mastering his brief” who would have the respect of the president-elect’s team.
However, Mandelson, who acted as adviser to Starmer’s campaign year after a decade away from politics, is a divisive figure from whom controversy is never far away.
In 2001, he resigned as Northern Ireland Secretary in Blair’s first term administration over allegations he abused his position to help Indian billionaire Srichand Hinduja get a British passport.
Mandelson vehemently denied any impropriety, saying he was quitting to escape the media circus enveloping him.
In 1998, he quit as trade and industry secretary over a $466,000 loan to buy a house from a cabinet colleague that he failed to declare.
“My project will be complete when the Labor Party learns to love Peter Mandelson,” Blair once said of his right-hand man in the so-called “New Labor” shift to the political center that helped return the party to power in 1997 after 18 years of Conservative rule.
