'I won't let Blair down,' vows Mandelson
Peter Mandelson vowed not to let down British Prime Minister Tony Blair after he was nominated as the UK’s next European commissioner.
Mr Blair ended months of speculation over the future of his friend, who has twice quit the cabinet amid controversy.
Mr Mandelson said that Mr Blair does not reward people because they are “friends or cronies” but gives people jobs “on merit”.
He said he had “agonised” over taking up the post, but insisted that another return to the cabinet had never been an option.
His opponents immediately condemned the decision. Mr Mandelson accepted he was “unpalatable” to some in the Labour Party, but said he had paid a very high price for his mistakes. Mr Blair, he said, had hailed him as the best person for the job.
Mr Mandelson told The Guardian: “I know Tony Blair well enough to know that if he did not think I was the right person for the job, wild horses would not drag him into making that decision.
“He does not reward people because they are friends or cronies or because they are right-wing or left-wing. He gives people jobs on merit. He has placed a lot of faith in me and I cannot let him down.”
He added that after his second resignation from the Cabinet as Northern Ireland Secretary he thought his career at the political frontline was over.
“I kept being told it and I read it every time I opened a newspaper. People told me to leave parliament and politics and find a completely different career but I never agreed. In fact the really low period only lasted about 24 hours,” he said.
Mr Mandelson’s nomination marked another extraordinary chapter in a controversial career.
It brought an end to days of fevered rumours at Westminster as to whether the former Trade and Industry and Northern Ireland Secretary would be willing to turn his back on domestic politics.
There was speculation that he could make another astonishing return to the cabinet after previously resigning over a home loan controversy and the Hinduja passport affair.
The man who famously described himself as “a fighter and not a quitter” is expected to take up his new job on November 1, once the new commission has been approved by the European parliament.
The European Commission’s President-elect Jose Manuel Barroso will decide which portfolio Mr Mandelson will be given. The MP said he would be happy to be made “commissioner for paper-clips” if that was what Mr Barroso wanted.
Labour now faces a by-election in the Hartlepool seat where Mr Mandelson has a 14,751 majority. It has been a Labour constituency for 40 years. But the government will take nothing for granted after this month’s by-elections.
In a statement, Mr Mandelson said he was delighted to have been nominated.
“It is a great honour as well as a huge challenge, and I will give it my all,” he said.
But he added: “I agonised over this decision because of my loyalty to my constituents in Hartlepool.
“Hartlepool has been the political bedrock of my life. In the general election of 2001, local people saw through all the media hype and nonsense and stood by me. I will be forever indebted to them.
“I hesitated, too, because for better or worse, I have been one of the principal architects of New Labour and I have worked closely with Tony Blair and the team for nearly 20 years.
“However, I am not walking away from what New Labour represents and what it still has to achieve.
“The Prime Minister has made a unique historical contribution in turning the Labour Party into a modern, social democratic party.
“I believe in his politics. I admire his great personal strengths. It is inevitably a difficult decision to go to Brussels to do another job. In the last few months the government has shown it has real, renewed purpose.
“But many challenges remain, including winning a referendum on Europe.”
Mr Mandelson accepted that his appointment would anger some Labour MPs and activists.
“I have been an uncompromising moderniser in the Labour Party,” he said.
He later told BBC2’s Newsnight that there was “a little bit of me” that would have liked to return to the Cabinet. But he again insisted that it was not an option.
He said: “There is always a little bit of me that wants to come back to the Cabinet because I want to be vindicated in that sense given the rather unfair circumstances of my last departure.
“But I have always recognised the difficulties of returning to the cabinet and I think now, for example, given the very predictable media frenzy that that would have accompanied, it would not be a good idea.”
The prime minister said: “The job of European commissioner is a vitally important position for this country. Europe is Britain’s best economic market.
“How Europe develops, especially a Europe of 25, will be crucial for the future of Britain, which is why we need the very best person representing Britain in Europe and Peter Mandelson has the skills, ability and contacts in Europe to make a great success of it.”
