Peter Mandelson is regarded as the ultimate Blairite. And certainly in terms of personal loyalty few match up to him. Despite Blair sacking him twice, Mandelson was still his most articulate defender in the various TV retrospectives on the Blair era. Mandelson even called Blair before accepting Gordon Brown’s offer of a seat in the Lords and a return to the cabinet.
But John Rentoul in his Independent on Sunday column made the crucial point that “Mandelson is not a political philosopher; he is an operator.” The same instincts that led Mandelson to move Labour to the centre on economics now seem to be persuading him to move Labour to the left on the economy. (Although, it is worth noting how welfare reform, immigration and bashing the human rights acts have all been used this week to try and stop the Labour is lurching to the left narrative from gaining momentum). As Rentoul—who as Blair’s biographer is an authority on who is and isn’t a proper Blairite—waspishly observes, Mandelson has “abolished the divide between Old and New Labour by defining New Labour as Old Labour.”
There are a couple of reasons why one might see some ideological light between Mandelson and late-stage Blair, who was—judging by his belief in the power of markets and the benefits of competition—slightly to the right of centre. Mandelson was in Brussels, where the political culture is to the left of Westminster, just when Blair became most convinced of the need for radical public service reform, something he couldn’t do because of the political realities within the Labour party. But perhaps most importantly: Mandelson is tribal Labour, Blair is not.
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