Peter Mandelson

Peter Benjamin Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British politician for the Labour Party. He helped to found the so-called 'New Labour' with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992-2004.

His Excellency The Right Honourable The Lord Mandelson PC
Mandelson in 2025
British Ambassador to the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 February 2025[1]
Monarch	Charles III
President	Donald Trump
Prime Minister	Sir Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Dame Karen Pierce
First Secretary of State
In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	John Prescott[a]
Succeeded by	William Hague
Lord President of the Council
In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
Succeeded by	Sir Nick Clegg
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills[b] President of the Board of Trade
In office 3 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	John Hutton
Succeeded by	Vince Cable
In office 27 July 1998 – 23 December 1998
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	Stephen Byers
European Commissioner for Trade
In office 22 November 2004 – 3 October 2008
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Pascal Lamy
Succeeded by	Catherine Ashton
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office 11 October 1999 – 24 January 2001
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Mo Mowlam
Succeeded by	John Reid
Minister without Portfolio
In office 2 May 1997 – 27 July 1998
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Brian Mawhinney
Succeeded by	Charles Clarke
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 October 2008 Life Peer
Member of Parliament for Hartlepool
In office 9 April 1992 – 8 September 2004
Preceded by	Ted Leadbitter
Succeeded by	Iain Wright
Personal details
Born	Peter Benjamin Mandelson (1953-10-21) 21 October 1953 (age 71) Hendon, Middlesex, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Reinaldo Avila da Silva ​ ​ (m. 2023)​
Relatives	Lord Morrison of Lambeth (grandfather)
Education	Hendon County Grammar School
Alma mater	St Catherine's College, Oxford
Signature
Nickname(s)	Prince of Darkness[2]

Lord Mandelson lost his job twice, once in 1998 for not declaring a loan he was given to buy a house, and once in 2001 for trying to arrange a passport for an Indian businessman who had given £1,000,000 to the Labour Party. He later made a speech claiming to have "inner steel".

After Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, he made Mandelson a Life Peer, and some newspapers have called him "the most powerful man in the Labour Party".

In 2025, he became the British Ambassador to the United States.

Peter Mandelson was fired by Starmer on September 11, 2025, following the publication in The Sun newspaper of supportive emails he had sent to Jeffrey Epstein after his arrest in 2008.^[3]

Mandelson is gay (he was outed in 1998 by openly gay journalist Matthew Parris),^[4] which led some to claim the UK was being run by a gay mafia.

Notes

1. Office vacant from 27 June 2007 to 5 June 2009
2. Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform between 2008 and 2009; Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 1998