The Battle of Corfu, the first encounter in the Mandelson-Osborne war, just escalated with Nathaniel Rothschild’s allegation in The Times that “George Osborne, who also accepted my hospitality, found the opportunity of meeting with Mr Deripaska so good that he invited the Conservatives’ fundraiser Andrew Feldman, who was staying nearby, to accompany him on to Mr Deripaska’s boat to solicit a donation. Since Mr Deripaska is not a British citizen, it was suggested by Mr Feldman, in a subsequent conversation at which Mr Deripaska was not present, that the donation was “channelled” through one of Mr Deripaska’s British companies.” The Tories emphatically deny this.
This whole story started with the leaking to the Sunday Times of details of a conversation between Mandelson and Osborne in Corfu. It was reported that Mandelson had dripped “pure poison” about Gordon Brown into Osborne’s ear. Whatever the truth of Nathaniel Rothschild’s letter, Osborne has now been more damaged by this saga than Mandelson. He clearly seriously underestimated the cunning and determination of his opponent. One can almost hear David Davis saying, “if you are going to hunt big game, you have got to kill with your first shot.”
On the Today programme this morning, Robert Peston joined Nick Robinson to offer further details on the story. Considering the role Osborne’s office is playing in pushing for a Serious Fraud Office investigation into who was the source for some of Peston’s scoops over the past few weeks, a reasonable person could conclude that Peston has a conflict of interest in broadcasting on Osborne’s political difficulties. If Peston is going to continue to report on this story, it might be worth this being mentioned to the audience.
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