Keir Starmer on the verge of appointing Labour grandee to key post at start of Trump presidency

Good morning. “I’m reliably informed that I will not be brought back,” Peter Mandelson told a podcast in June, when asked whether he might get a job in a Keir Starmer administration after the election which was then only about a week away. “That has been made absolutely clear. They don’t want any big beasts coming back to mark anyone’s homework.”

Let’s hope that in his new job the intelligence he gathers about what is going on in Donald Trump’s administration turns out to a little bit more accurate.

One source said that Starmer’s decision to make a political appointment reflected how seriously he takes the UK’s relationship with the US, adding that Mandelson is a “significant figure in his own right”.

He’s a big political hitter, well connected in our government, and I think that’s what we need with the Trump administration.

He’s very interested in international affairs and foreign policy. And by the way, he is well connected in America.