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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor

Mandelson and McSweeney: a partnership forged on winning and crushing the Labour left

Composite of Morgan McSweeney on the left wearing a life, suit and jacket, and Peter Mandelson in an open-neck shirt.
Morgan McSweeney denies being Peter Mandelson’s ‘protege’. Composite: Shutterstock/EPA

Like many Labour stories, Peter Mandelson’s and Morgan McSweeney’s both start at Lambeth council.

Mandelson was in his mid-20s. It was 1979, and he was a new councillor under the leadership of “Red” Ted Knight. He came to despise the local party, describing the Lambeth Labour party’s leadership as “contributing very little to the economic development of south London, instead politicising everything, attacking the police and the Tory government, and making the council go broke.”

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