LONDON — Peter Mandelson, a controversial Labour big beast, has been picked to become Britain’s new ambassador to the United States, the government in London formally announced late Friday.
No. 10 Downing Street confirmed widespread reporting that the ex-European trade commissioner, who twice resigned from Tony Blair’s government, will be taking on the key Transatlantic diplomacy role as U.S. president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. He will take up the position early next year.
In a statement, Prime Minister Keir Starmer talked up Mandelson’s “unrivaled experience” and said he would take the U.K.-U.S. “partnership from strength to strength.”
“It is a great honor to serve the country in this way,” Mandelson said as his role was announced. “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.”
Mandelson is a veteran political operator who helped overhaul Britain’s center-left Labour Party in the 1990s as it returned from a lengthy spell in political purgatory.
He twice quit amid scandal during Blair’s time in office — but made a striking frontline comeback during Gordon Brown’s administration.
A fierce critic of Brexit, Mandelson served as European commissioner for trade for a four-year stint in the 2000s, and has a seat in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British parliament.
In-tray
Mandelson will inherit a packed in-tray from Karen Pierce, who has been in post since 2018 and was praised by Starmer Friday as “an outstanding representative of our country abroad.”
Crucial issues likely to dominate his first few months include trying to shore up U.S. support for Ukraine under Trump, and persuading the Trump administration not to hammer the U.K. economy with tariffs on imports.
Simon Fraser, the former head of Britain’s diplomatic arm, the Foreign Office, described Mandelson as “a big political hitter, well connected in our government, and I think that’s what we need with the Trump administration.”
But Mandelson’s views on two issues — China and the EU — as well as his reputation as a pro-globalization liberal used to mingling with the elite, could make him an awkward fit in Trump’s Washington D.C.
He sat on the board of the official Remain campaign during the EU referendum in 2016, then advocated for a second referendum to overturn the decision after Brexit won.
By contrast, Trump once styled himself as “Mr Brexit” and has built strong and enduring ties with leading British Euroskeptic Nigel Farage.
“Mandelson is technically of the kind of establishment swamp that Trump has often talked about draining, and [Trump] will also have Farage in his ear on this saying he’s going to keep the U.K. too close to the EU,” warned Allie Renison, a former policy adviser to Kemi Badenoch as British trade secretary, and now at consultancy SEC Newgate.
The incoming ambassador “has a tendency to talk out of both sides of his mouth,” she said, although such an approach “may well be needed” in reassuring both Washington and Brussels over the U.K.’s direction of travel.
She described his record as EU trade commissioner as a “mixed bag,” pointing out that he helped bag a deal with South Korea seen as “a boon for U.K. auto exports,” but was also commissioner when the Doha round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations collapsed over U.S. objections.
But Pascal Lamy, who was director general of the WTO and was in post when the Doha round stalled, praised him as a “politician with an intellectual side, creative on the ideological level.”
Mandelson is, he said, “a rather remarkable personality who likes to be seen, who likes money, who likes parties, hence this sometimes sulfurous reputation that he has.”
Mandelson is not, Lamy said, “a technician, but he is a very good politician.”
“He works and communicates very very well,” Lamy added. “He has an ego, let’s say, above the average, but hey, he has the intellectual means to afford that.”
John Alty, who previously ran Britain’s trade department and worked with Mandelson back in the Brown administration, recalled the incoming ambassador as “very effective — and I doubt he has lost that capability.”
“In any case, Peter Mandelson does not go unnoticed anywhere,” said Lamy. “Wherever he goes, whatever he does, he always gets noticed. He is an extraordinary personality.”
China record
On China, Mandelson has called for fresh economic dialogue between Britain and Beijing. That may clash with the hawkish views of some of Trump’s picks, including his choice for secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
“It is absurd to imagine putting a country of such weight in the naughty corner,” Mandelson wrote in 2018 of relations between China and the U.S. during Trump’s first spell in the White House.
Mandelson has also called on the U.K. government to get over its ongoing feud with Trump ally Elon Musk, warning it would be “unwise to ignore” the tech tycoon despite his strident criticism of British Prime Minister Starmer and flirtation with Farage’s Reform party.
Mandelson, who has faced scrutiny for his post-government business interests, has meanwhile “transitioned into a new role” at the lobbying consultancy he co-founded, Global Counsel announced Friday morning. The agency vowed to “watch from the sidelines as he represents King and country in Washington D.C.”
Others were less thrilled.
John McDonnell, a key ally of left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, of whom Mandelson was a constant critic, said: “For many reasons associated with Peter Mandelson’s history in and out of political office many will feel Keir has lost all sense of political judgement on this decision.”
Dan Bloom and Emilio Casalicchio contributed to this report. Camille Gijs contributed from Brussels.
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