Peter Mandelson confirmed as new ambassador to US – UK politics live

A source close to the government told ITV News that Labour’s appointment of Mandelson shows how important the UK sees “our relationship with the Trump administration” with the former trade secretary having “unrivalled political experience”.

Quentin Letts, the parliamentary sketchwriter, has reacted to Mandelson’s appointment as the UK ambassador to the US on X:

No 10 announcement of Ld. Mandelson as HM ambassador to Washington includes, at end, a quotation from D. Lammy saying ‘wonderful to welcome Peter back to the team’. Will ‘Peter’ often bother to consult ‘team-mate’ Lammy? Or will he deal directly with Starmer/Powell? Poor David.

• Keir Starmer has confirmed that Peter Mandelson is the new ambassador to the US and said he will bring “unrivalled experience” to the role. (See 4.28pm.) Diplomats have welcomed the news that Mandelson is getting the job. (See 9.24am.)

Lord Mandelson has said becoming ambassador to the US is a great honour.

It is a great honour to serve the country in this way. We face challenges in Britain but also big opportunities and it will be a privilege to work with the government to land those opportunities, both for our economy and our nation’s security, and to advance our historic alliance with the United States.

And David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has said:

It is wonderful to welcome Peter back to the team. He offers a wealth of experience in trade, economic and foreign policy from his years in government and the private sector.

He will arrive in Washington DC as we deepen our enduring alliance with the incoming United States administration, particularly on growth and security.

Downing Street has confirmed that Peter Mandelson is the new ambassador to the US.

In a statement Keir Starmer said:

I am delighted to appoint Lord Mandelson to be the next British ambassador to the United States of America.

The United States is one of our most important allies and as we move into a new chapter in our friendship, Peter will bring unrivalled experience to the role and take our partnership from strength to strength.

I would also like to thank Dame Karen Pierce for her invaluable service for the last four years, and in particular the wisdom and steadfast support she has given me personally since July. She made history as the first woman to serve as UK ambassador to the US and she has been an outstanding representative of our country abroad. I wish her all the very best in future.

In his Telegraph article published today Nigel Biggar, who has just been nominated for a peerage by Kemi Badenoch, also says he favours leaving the European convention on human rights. He explains:

I’ve come to the view that it would be best for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights and the jurisdiction of the Strasbourg court. While its defenders protest that the convention was largely a British creation, the truth is that the British government subscribed to avoid political embarrassment – and against the strong advice of the chief justice, who warned that subscription would hand a host of political hostages to judicial fortune. If the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand can manage without the supervision of an international court, I am confident Britain can, too.

If there is one feature that stands out from the list of six new peers nominated by Kemi Badenoch, it is anti-woke. The most controversial name on the list is Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, which spends much of its time defending the right of people to say things that would be deemed as bad taste, or worse, by the Guardian. As Ben Kentish from LBC points out on social media, Young has a long record of causing offence.

In 2018, Young was forced to resign from the board of the universities regulator after a series of tweets emerged in which he commented on various women’s breasts. E.g: “What happened to Winkleman’s breasts? Put on some weight, girlie.”

He was condemned after suggesting that wheelchair ramps in schools were a symptom of “ghastly inclusivity”.

He has also proposed offering “parents on low incomes with below-average IQs” the option of genetically engineering their embryos to make the child clever.

More recently, he was found by the press regulator to have published “significantly misleading” claims about the Covid pandemic.

Nigel Biggar, a professor at Oxford University, is a much more conventional candidate for a peerage. But he is also prominent in “anti-woke” circles, and he has been leading a project to challenge what he sees as overly-critical accounts of colonialism. His book, Colonialim: A Moral Reckoning got five stars in the Daily Telegraph, but was described by the Guardian as straining credulity. He has published an article for the Telegraph today saying “the repressive aggression of the ‘progressive’ left, supported by the timidity of the conflict-averse centre” helped to make him a Conservative.

Other names on the list are Badenoch allies, like Roger Evans, who served with her on the London assembly, and Rachel Maclean, the former MP who helped to run her leadership campaign. There is also a London element: Joanne Cash is a former parliamentary candidate in Westminster.

Peerage lists are normally dominated by former MPs well regarded by the party leadership, and that is the case with the list of 30 new Labour peers announced by Keir Starmer. It features eight former MPs: Luciana Berger, Kevin Brennan, Lyn Brown, Margaret Curran (who is also a former MSP), Thangam Debbonaire, Julie Elliott, Steve McCabe and Phil Wilson. There are also two former MEPs: Theresa Griffin and Claude Moraes.

Many of the other people on the list could be described as Labour grandees; people who have not been MPs, but who have had senior jobs in Labour politics, either in the trade union movement (like Brendan Barber, Mary Bousted, Kay Carberry), in devolved parliaments (Carwyn Jones, Wendy Alexander), in party HQ (David Evans) or working for a past or current leader (Anji Hunter, Deborah Mattinson and Sue Gray).

There are at least two appointments that reflect the emphasis that Starmer has placed on combating antisemitism in the party: Berger, who quit the party when Jeremy Corbyn was party leader because she thought he was too tolerant of antisemitism, and Mike Katz, chair of the Jewish Labour Movement.

Katz also belongs to another sub-group on the list: the Camden mafia. He is a former Camden councillor. Dinah Caine is chair of Camden STEAM, a youth employment project, and Simon Pitkeathley is chief executive of Camden Town Unlimited. Given that Keir Starmer is a Camden MP, the Camden links were probably helpful in getting them on the list.

And there are other names on the list with a personal Starmer connection. Gray, of course, left a good job in the civil service to become his chief of staff, but was then effectively sacked soon after Labour took office amid complaints that No 10 was not working effectively. And Alison Levitt KC was principal legal adviser to Starmer when he was on director of public prosecutions.

The Conservatives will still have considerably more peers than Labour even when all the people on today’s list (see 3pm) have taken their seats.

Here are the numbers for four main groups in the Lords, now and with the new peers

Conservatives

Now: 271

With new peers: 277

Labour

Now: 185

With new peers: 215

Crossbenchers

Now: 184

With new peers: 184

Liberal Democrats

Now: 78

With new peers: 80

There are also 83 other members of the House of Lords who are either non-affiliated, bishops or from smaller parties

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has released this statement about the two Liberal Democrats he has nominated for the House of Lords.

Shaffaq [Mohammed] and Mark [Pack] are both a credit to the Liberal Democrats and I am delighted that they will both be bringing their experience to our group in the House of Lords.

Shaffaq has been an incredible public servant for over two decades through his work in Sheffield and will bring huge expertise on local government and communities. Mark Pack has dedicated himself to making politics more open and transparent, and will bring deep knowledge of electoral law and constitutional matters.

Here is the full list of new peers announced by No 10. Here is the list as published by Downing Street.

Nominations from the leader of the Labour party

1) Professor Wendy Alexander FRSE – Vice Chair of the British Council, former Member of the Scottish Parliament for Paisley North and previously Labour Leader in the Scottish Parliament.

2) Sir Brendan Barber – former General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress and former chair of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

3) Luciana Berger – former Member of Parliament for Liverpool Wavertree and current Chair of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance.

4) Mary Bousted – formerly the Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), and education policy adviser.

5) Kevin Brennan – former Member of Parliament for Cardiff West and former Minister of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

6) Lyn Brown – former Member of Parliament for West Ham and former Shadow Minister.

7) Dinah Caine OBE CBE – Chair of Camden STEAM, formerly Chair of Goldsmiths University and CEO and Chair of Creative Skillset.

8) Kay Carberry CBE – former Assistant General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC).

9) Margaret Curran – former Member of Parliament for Glasgow East and formerly Minister within the Scottish Executive.

10) Thangam Debbonaire – former Member of Parliament for Bristol West and former Shadow Secretary of State.

11) Julie Elliott – former Member of Parliament for Sunderland Central and former Shadow Minister.

12) David Evans – former Labour Party Regional Director, Assistant General Secretary and General Secretary of the Labour Party 2020-2024.

13) Sue Gray – former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister and former Cabinet Office Second Permanent Secretary.

14) Theresa Griffin – former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West England.

15) Anji Hunter – Senior Advisor at Edelman, and former Head of Government Relations in Downing Street.

16) Carwyn Jones – former Member of the Senedd (MS) for Bridgend and First Minister of Wales.

17) Mike Katz – National Chair of Jewish Labour Movement and a former Camden Councillor.

18) Gerard Lemos CMG CBE – Social Policy expert and Chair of English Heritage, Chair of National Savings & Investments (NS&I), and Chair of London Institute of Banking and Finance.

19) Alison Levitt KC – Master of the Bench of the Inner Temple. Previously Principal Legal Advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions and a Circuit Judge specialising in serious crime, including rape.

20) Anne Longfield CBE – Campaigner for children and formerly served as the Children’s Commissioner for England. Founder and Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives.

21) Deborah Mattinson – former Director of Strategy to Sir Keir Starmer. Co-founder of BritainThinks.

22) Steve McCabe – former Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hall Green and Birmingham Selly Oak, and former Government Whip.

23) Claude Moraes OBE – former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London and chair of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee.

24) Wendy Nichols – UNISON Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Convenor and Branch Secretary and Labour Councillor.

25) Simon Pitkeathley – Currently the Chief Executive of Camden Town Unlimited and Euston Town, formerly the Mayor of London’s ‘Champion for Small Business’.

26) Dame Anne Marie Rafferty DBE FRCN – Professor of nursing policy and former President of the Royal College of Nursing.

27) Krish Raval OBE – Founding Director of Faith in Leadership.

28) Marvin Rees OBE – former Mayor of Bristol and Head of Bristol City Council. Former journalist, voluntary sector manager and NHS public health manager.

29) Revd Dr Russell David Rook OBE – Partner at the Good Faith Partnership and Anglican priest.

30) Phil Wilson – former Member of Parliament for Sedgefield, and former Opposition Assistant Whip.

Nominations from the leader of the Conservative party

1) Nigel Biggar CBE – Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford and Anglican priest.

2) Joanne Cash – Co-founder of Parent Gym and barrister serving as the Southeastern Circuit Junior and a member of the Bar Human Rights Committee.

3) Rt Hon Dame Thérèse Coffey PhD – former Deputy Prime Minister and former Member of Parliament for Suffolk Coastal.

4) Roger Evans – former Deputy Mayor of London and former member of the London Assembly for Havering and Redbridge.

5) Rachel Maclean – former Member of Parliament for Redditch and former Minister of State for Housing and Planning.

6) Toby Young – founder and director of the Free Speech Union, and an associate editor of The Spectator.

Nominations from the leader of the Liberal Demorat party

1) Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed MBE – former Sheffield City Councillor and chair of the Liberal Democrat Carers Commission.

2) Dr Mark Pack – former President of the Liberal Democrats.

Downing Street has announced 38 political peerages – 30 Labour ones, six Conservative ones, and two Lib Dem ones. As expected, Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, is on the list.

Here is the list.

Readers often complain that this blog, the Guardian, and the media in general, give too much coverage to Reform UK. They’ve only got five MPs, I’m told (prompting me to point out that they came third in terms of share of the vote). I’m always happy to debate this BTL but in the Times today Patrick Maguire has written a good column with an argument about why they deserve attention.

Highlighing what Reform UK has said on economic policy (for example, that Thames Water should be nationalised, that the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe should not be allowed to close), Maguire says “it isn’t difficult to imagine a near future in which Reform is outflanking Labour on the left as well as the right”. And he argues:

Until now Labour politicians have tended to console themselves with the notion that Farage and his boys are little more than the Sealed Knot of Thatcherism: re-enacting old battles in pinstripe armour with little heed for whether their voters think it’s all a bit weird. Sometimes Farage can’t help but affirm their prejudices: recall the election debate in which he suggested the “NHS model isn’t working”. Privatising hospitals is not what his people want to hear.

But what about nationalising monopoly utilities? Wielding the National Security and Investment Act to take steel plants and semiconductor factories into state ownership? Campaigning against the takeover of Royal Mail by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky? Reminding voters that most of the utilities for which they pay through the nose are owned by funds in China, Canada and wherever else? The Reform leadership is in private discussions about all of that. It is thinking more seriously about what it says in public too. Note, for instance, that Farage and Tice chose not to run their mouths off and pledge to compensate Waspi women this week.

On utilities and strategic industries, Reform is going where No 10 and No 11 won’t. There are countless reasons why not — most of them to do with the government balance sheet — but the sum of it all is a vast expanse of political space to the left of Starmer and Reeves. If they don’t want to fill it, somebody will. And that somebody is likely to be Reform.

The Foreign Office has admitted that its proposed deal with Mauritius handing over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands is under review.

The government presented the agreement as a done deal when it was announced in October, and ministers said the UK would benefit because the arrangement would allow the UK and the US to continue operating their military airbase on Diego Garcia for at least another 99 years despite the sovereignty transfer. Without a deal, there was a risk of the UK eventually being compelled to surrender sovereignty under international law, the government said.

The deal was announced shortly before an election in Mauritius. But Navinchandra Ramgoolam, who returned for a third term as prime minister after winning the poll, ordered a review of the proposed treaty. He told his parliament on Tuesday that what had been agreed “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect from such an agreement”.

Initially Downing Street downplayed the significance of this, but in a statement today the Foreign Office has signalled that the deal is being revised. It said:

Mauritius and the UK have held a series of productive, ongoing conversations and exchanges on finalising a historic treaty on the exercise of sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago.

Both countries reiterated their commitment to finalising a treaty as quickly as possible, whose terms will agree to ensure the long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia and that Mauritius is sovereign over the archipelago.

Momentum, the leftwing Labour group, has criticised the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, saying it is evidence of the party’s “moral bankruptcy” under Keir Starmer’s leadership. It put this on social media.

Starmer has appointed Peter Mandelson, associated with Jeffrey Epstein and implicated in the worst excesses of New Labour, as US ambassador.

This decision demonstrates once again the moral bankruptcy and political ineptitude that has characterised Starmer’s leadership to date.

Back to council byelection since the general election (see 1.05pm), and David Cowling, a former head of political research at the BBC, has produced his own analysis of the figures. Looking just at the 153 council byelections contested by Labour, he says:

In summary, Labour’s vote share fell in 121 (79%) and increased in 32 (21%). In 73 seats (48% of the total) Labour’s share fell by 10% or more: in a further 39 (25% of the total) the party’s share loss was below 10%. Among the 32 seats where Labour’s vote share increased, twelve were in Scotland and two in Wales.

Labour was defending 88 of the seats, of which they held 54 and lost 34 – nineteen of them to the Conservatives. They also gained six seats – three in Scotland, two in England and one in Wales.

Ann Widdecombe, the former Tory minister who is now a spokesperson for the Reform UK party, has criticised the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US – but not very strongly. In an interview with GB News, she said:

I don’t think he’s a good choice. He’s a staunch remainer. As we all know, Trump was very much in favour of Brexit.

But having said that, he is a smoothie, and he does operate quite well, so let’s watch and see.

The last three council byelections of 2024 were held yesterday. Labour were defending all three seats, and they lost two of them. The Conservatives took one of the seats, in Dudley, and Reform UK took another, in Swale in Kent. Election Maps UK posted the results on social media.

Individual council byelection results don’t count for very much, but cumulatively they are one of the best measures of political performance available. Election Maps UK has produced figures on what has been happening since the general election. Mostly, its bad news for Labour, because its vote share is down almost 9 percentage points.

But there is bad news for the Conservatives too. Reform UK has only won seven seats, and overall Nigel Farage’s party is only getting about a third as many votes as Kemi Badenoch’s. But the Election Maps UK analysis suggests that, when Reform UK does stand, the Conservatives lose out far more than Labour.

Diane Abbott, the Labour leftwinger and mother of the Commons, does not seem to be a fan of the new ambassador to the US. In a post on social media, she also points out (correctly) some of the language used to valorise Mandelson and other politicians like him never gets used to describe women with just as much experience.

Ugh! Mandelson repeatedly referred to as a ‘big hitter’ or ‘big beast’, even by himself!
Never applied to women in politics with just as much experience, some who have never been sacked from government or who have supported far fewer wars.