Mandelson asked Blair before accepting Brown's offer of a job

Peter Mandelson has confirmed on Sky News my disclosure in today's Sunday Telegraph that he consulted Tony Blair before accepting Gordon Brown's offer of a Cabinet post and that Blair told his old friend that the decision was a "no brainer."

It is, of course, revealing that, in spite of his claim in today's Observer interview to be "joined at the hip" with Brown, Peter was not willing to splice himself to Gordon without Tony's approval. He is still a Blair man, first and foremost, seconded as a friendly gesture to the court of Brown.

That said, Blair's enthusiasm for this controversial return does not reflect a desire to place of a double agent at Brown's side. Rather it is evidence of the Blairite camp's worry that the New Labour project is in danger of obliteration and that they will all be held to account by posterity - Brownites and Blairites alike - if the party suffers a terrible defeat at the general election. Today's News of the World poll suggests their fears are justified. All hands on deck, indeed.