‘Pestering for a role’: how Mandelson talked his way back into the Labour fold

Mandelson in June 2024, as the Starmer project was preparing for an election insiders say it didn’t know how to win. Photograph: Thomas Krych/Story Picture Agency/Shutterstock

A general election was on the horizon and Peter Mandelson was everywhere. “He didn’t have a desk but he would dip in and out on big issues; he was always there for advice,” recalled a former Labour official of the party’s run-up to the campaign in 2024.

“He would be in and out of the Loto [leader of the opposition] office in Westminster, picking people off individually, ‘We need to chat and do this’, sort of thing.”