Lord Peter Mandelson was confirmed on Friday as Britain’s ambassador to Washington, with a mission to talk to Donald Trump via Fox News and ward off the threat of US tariffs.
The appointment ends weeks of indecision by Sir Keir Starmer over whether to send the political heavyweight to engage with the incoming administration.
Some inside Britain’s Foreign Office had urged the prime minister to stick with US ambassador Dame Karen Pierce, known as “the Trump whisperer”.
However, Starmer’s allies say he ultimately believed the case was overwhelming for sending a veteran politician and big hitter to Washington, not least given Mandelson’s experience in trade issues.
“It wasn’t a slam dunk,” said one person close to the process. “The prime minister took his time. There were some in the system who wanted Karen to carry on. That was another option.”
Mandelson, a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is a skilled media and political operator, dating back to his days as Labour’s communications chief in the 1980s when he became known as the “Prince of Darkness”.
“He’s a big name,” said another official close to the selection. “He can do Fox News and the other TV channels and that’s a big part of the job. He’s in a league of his own.”
Mandelson, a former EU trade commissioner, has also been appointed for his trade expertise, with an immediate instruction from Starmer to head off the threat of Britain being targeted as part of Trump’s proposed 10-20 per cent tariff on global imports.
“There’s no reason why Britain should be an immediate target,” said one person close to Starmer. “Peter’s priority then is to design the sort of 21st century digital and services economic agreement, but that would be a medium-term objective.”
Previous talks on a more ambitious free-trade agreement between the two nations have broken down over food standards — the UK bans chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef.
Starmer briefly considered rival candidates earlier in the year, notably former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband and former EU foreign policy chief Lady Cathy Ashton, but they were quickly discarded.
“For a long time it has been “Peter or not Peter,” said one Downing Street insider. “I never heard any other name mentioned in the ‘or not’ category over recent months. I don’t really know why it took so long.”
Mandelson is close to Starmer but not in his inner circle. The prospective ambassador was less than diplomatic earlier this year when he suggested Starmer should “shed a few pounds”.
The 71-year-old has also been a magnet for controversy over the years. As a minister he was forced to resign twice from Blair’s government and his past contact with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein emerged last year.
Last month, Mandelson suggested Starmer should use Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as a “bridgehead” to build relations with Trump and Elon Musk. “Did Peter really say that?” asked one Starmer aide at the time.
His seven-year stint as president of the Great Britain China Centre, a non-departmental Foreign Office body, has made him a target for Conservative China hawks and is unlikely to go unnoticed in the Trump team.
Iain Duncan Smith, former Tory leader, said: “His public stance and private position on China has been absolutely terrible.” He noted Mandelson was the only Labour peer to vote against legislation targeting Chinese “genocide” in Xinjiang.
After the vote, Mandelson told colleagues that having a “general genocide definition in the formulation of foreign policy” could be too sweeping and would be difficult to apply, leaving the government with its hands tied.
Those close to Starmer said the prime minister wanted to wait until Jonathan Powell, national security adviser, and Morgan McSweeney, Downing Street chief of staff, had met the Trump team earlier this month before making a final decision.
During this hiatus, some officials in the Foreign Office pressed the case for Pierce, who took up her post in Washington in 2020, to carry on, at least for a year. “She has very good relations with the Trump team — that was an option,” said one government official.
But that was only seen as a stop-gap solution. “She couldn’t carry on forever,” said one diplomat. She is now in contention to become the first female permanent secretary at the Foreign Office.
While Starmer delayed, a formidable coalition of backers formed behind Mandelson, including David Lammy, foreign secretary, Powell and McSweeney.
“Keir likes to take his time with these decisions,” admitted one government official. “He did the same thing with the choice of a new cabinet secretary and national security adviser. But in the end the case for Peter was clear.”
Starmer accepted that having a big name and political operator would help to open doors with the Trump team. “They’ll like the fact that Peter has a reputation for ruthlessness,” said one Foreign Office insider.
Mandelson’s belief that Britain can “have its cake and eat it” by fostering good trade relations simultaneously with Washington, Brussels and Beijing chimes exactly with Starmer’s own view that he set out in his foreign policy speech at Guildhall earlier this month.
Starmer said on Friday: “Peter will bring unrivalled experience to the role and take our partnership [with the US] from strength to strength.” Lammy said it was “wonderful to welcome Peter back to the team”.
Mandelson, co-founder of the Global Counsel advisory group, said: “It’s a great honour to serve the country in this way.” He has told friends that he will put his business interests “into cold storage” while in his new job.
Lord Kim Darroch, UK ambassador to Washington during the first Trump presidency, said most diplomats would accept the case for inserting a political appointee into the Edwin Lutyens-designed ambassador’s residence at 3100 Massachusetts Avenue.
He told the FT: “These are especially turbulent and fragile times. It’s not just about Trump 2 but it’s about Ukraine, China and Nato. In these circumstances it’s good to have someone who can literally pick up the phone to the PM.”
For Mandelson it has been a good end to the year, following his disappointment last month at being beaten by Lord William Hague for the chancellorship of Oxford university.
On Monday he was in hospital having an operation on an aneurysm in the lower aorta, which friends say was “entirely successful”. His new posting in Washington is expected to start early in 2025.