New Labour veteran and former cabinet minister to take up post after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January
Peter Mandelson has been picked by Sir Keir Starmer to be the UK’s next ambassador to Washington.
The Prime Minister is to announce shortly that the New Labour veteran and former cabinet minister will take up the post following Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, The Times reported.
Mandelson will take over from Dame Karen Pierce, who built strong links with Trump’s circle during his first term in office.
Pierce will remain in place for Trump’s swearing in ceremony on 20 January, but Mandelson will take up residency in Washington later that month, it is understood.
It is the first time a British prime minister has given the post to a political appointee for nearly half a century, and follows a string of other New Labour veterans given senior posts traditionally reserved for civil servants or career diplomats.
However, Mandelson has been praised by others across the political spectrum for his ability to engage and win people over – something that may be needed when Trump returns to the White House.
Despite Pierce’s strong performance in the job, Starmer is understood to have believed Mandelson’s background as EU trade commissioner makes him the ideal candidate to broker negotiations with the Trump administration about a UK-US trade deal.
Trump has warned he plans to introduce blanket tariffs when he becomes president and the UK faces a dilemma in navigating a new deal with the US and a post-Brexit trading relationship with the European Union.
Earlier today, Starmer said that the UK would “have to make sure that we avoid tariffs” as he faced questions on his approach to the incoming US president.
He told the Commons Liaison Committee he was “alive to the danger of tariffs” but would not “speculate as to what the incoming president might do”.
He said: “I am not a fan of tariffs and, therefore, we have to make sure that we avoid tariffs.”
Earlier this month, Mandelson lost out on the job of Oxford chancellor to former Tory leader and foreign secretary William Hague.
The Labour peer is a close ally of Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and also won the support for the job of Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
It is likely that Starmer would have discussed Mandelson’s appointment with Trump on Wednesday when they held talks by phone.
Mandelson beat former foreign secretary David Miliband, Baroness Amos, a former development secretary, and Baroness Ashton of Upholland, who succeeded Mandelson as European trade commissioner to get the post.
One of the architects of New Labour, the 71-year-old helped restore the party to power in the 1990s.
He served as business secretary and Northern Ireland secretary under Sir Tony, but then stood down as an MP in 2004 to become a European Commissioner.
Mandelson returned to government in 2008 when Gordon Brown awarded him a peerage and appointed him business secretary.