Peter Mandelson

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Peter Mandelson

Peter Mandelson.Portrait.jpg

Name Peter Benjamin Mandelson (born 21 October, 1953)
Nicknames Smish (his family), Benj (at Oxford), Bobby (to Tony), Mandy (everyone), Prince of Darkness (everyone), the Dark Lord (everyone, post-enoblement), the Sultan of Spin (media), 'kid' (Neil Kinnock)
Politics
Party Labour
Constituency Hartlepool (1992-2004)
Positions • First Secretary of State (2009-2010)
• Secretary of State for Business (2008-2010)
• European Commissioner for Trade (2004-2008)
• Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1999-2001)
• Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1998)
• Minister Without Portfolio (1997-1998)
Likes Singing, dancing, social climbing, v-necked jumpers, roses, colourful socks, dogs, the Labour Party, trashy romance novels like Bridget Jones' Diary and Kay Burley's First Ladies
Dislikes Blue Labour, Militant Tendency, invasions of his privacy
Friends Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, Gordon Brown, Roger Liddle, Carla Powell, Robert Harris, Roland Rudd, Nat Rothschild, Hannah Rothschild, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Fiona Millar, James Purnell, Tristram Hunt, Derek Draper, Neil Kinnock
Enemies Gordon Brown, Alastair Campbell, Charlie Whelan, Arthur Scargill, Leila Deen, Ed Balls, John Prescott, Neil Kinnock
Relationships
Partners Peter Ashby (? - 198?)
Reinaldo da Silva (1997-present)
Children None
Personal Attributes
Nationality English
Religion Atheist
Sexuality Gay
Height 5' 10"
Eye Colour Brown
Handedness Right
Accent Received pronunciation, sometimes tries a bit of Estuary (to everyone's horror)
Languages Very poor French

Even Jesus Christ was only resurrected the once.~ Andrew Rawnsley, The End of the Party

Peter Mandelson is a politician responsible for the rebranding of the Labour Party in the 1980s and the creation of New Labour in the 1990s along with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He is one of the most prominent politicians of the Noughties and a popular figure in the fandom.

Life and Career[edit | edit source]

Childhood[edit | edit source]

An infant Peter, looking exactly like adult Peter

Peter was named by his older brother Milo after Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny. He campaigned for the Labour Party since he was a toddler riding a tricycle. As a child, he was known to be confident, clever and gregarious - far more outgoing than Milo, four years his senior.

Peter at Hendon County Grammar School

He excelled in most subjects at school, but performed poorly in maths and French - blaming his teachers' Toryism for putting him off the subjects. He was manager of the school athletics team, enjoying horse riding, and showed flair as a child actor, playing Ronnie Winslow in The Winslow Boy. He was far closer to his mother than his father, and hero-worshipped his grandfather, Herbert Morrison, once bursting into tears after finding that he had left the house before he could get back from school. His grandfather didn't return the adoration, and the Mandelsons heard of his death on ITN. Peter and his brother were friends with the sons of Harold and Mary Wilson, and went to watch Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the other boys.

Adolescence[edit | edit source]

Teenaged Peter and his friends. Peter is bottom right. Note his hippy hair.

As a teenager, Peter’s best friends were Steve Howell and Keren Abse (whom he had befriended after she vomited on him on a school trip to Gibraltar). Together they led Hendon Young Socialists, which occupied much of their time. Keren recalls that the three of them went to many parties together and to drink and dance, though Peter alone wouldn’t smoke pot.

He became a prefect, but resigned over the fact that appointments were made rather than elections being held. When new students were appointed to take the places of the prefects who had resigned, Peter organised the younger students to follow them around the school chanting "Scabs!" He campaigned with Hendon Young Socialists to end the entrance exam for Hendon Country Grammar School.

He joined the Young Communist League under the influence of his friends, and went to several meetings. Though he immersed himself in membership, he didn’t fit in as well as he had as a Young Socialist, and described himself as "discontented". While working as steward at the YCL Congress in Scarborough, he attempted to stop a stocky builder from entering, who "got really outraged and pinned Peter up against the wall... Peter was really quite shaken by this". He claims not to have joined the Communist Party as an adult, despite dubious claims otherwise.

Peter earned a place at Oxford University, but delayed the start of his degree by one year to take a gap year in Tanzania. While in Africa, he pondered Socialism on an international scale, grew a beard and flirted with Christianity (which he promptly gave up upon returning to England).

During his University years, he gave up Communism and took up ballroom dancing instead.

Pre-Political Career[edit | edit source]

Peter's socialist beard. Note also his flat cap, which unfortunately is plaid and is therefore conveying "golfer" more than "proletarian".

Peter worked in the Economic Department of the TUC, and then joined the BYC, becoming chairman and impressing future Labour Party colleagues with his organisational skills. It was here that he met Peter Ashby. As part of his work with the BYC, he attended a Soviet-organised conference in Cuba, along with Arthur Scargill, who would later run against him in the 2001 election. David Aaronovitch described him as "a really very strange figure in his neat V-neck jumpers. With swept-over hair and his beard and moustache, and this particular look, this vulpine grin that used to come across his face whenever there was anything kind of remotely amusing." As a young man, MI5 kept a file on him, concerned that he could be a Soviet spy.

Lambeth Council[edit | edit source]

All the Militants would like to hit that. Literally.

With his background in student politics and the TUC, Peter was a natural Labour candidate, and in 1979 he was elected to the Lambeth Council as the councillor for Stockwell. The council, under the leadership of "Red Ted" Knight, was one of the most radical in Britain, and though Peter impressed Tory colleagues with his impassioned speeches against his Trotskyite comrades, he failed to make any measurable dent in their policy agenda. After three years he resigned in disgust and took the "media escape", abandoning politics to join the BBC as an executive at London Weekend Television.

Director of Communications[edit | edit source]

Although it had hurt him terribly with its commitment to a high rate of top tax and unilateral nuclear disarmament, Peter's heart still belonged to the Labour Party, and he longed for the day when his beloved would break free of its damaging addictions and they could be together once again. To that end, he served as centrist candidate Roy Hattersley's campaign director in the 1983 leadership contest, which they lost by a landslide. Despite the defeat, Roy was impressed by Peter's organisational abilities, and when the party leadership went looking for a Director of Communications in 1985, he recommended Peter for the job.

The stairway to power

Before the interview, Alastair Campbell described Peter as being sick with nerves because of how 'desperate' he was to get the job. Peter managed to impress Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley with his answer about striking miners in his interview, though not with his powder blue socks, which the conservative Neil found too flashy for his liking. They employed him nevertheless, giving him charge to transform the Party’s image. Peter idolised Neil, and reveled in finally working for the party he loved.

Under his influence, the Party took down the old Red Flag and replaced it with the Red Rose, a popular symbol of Social Democracy on the continent, as he described it "changing the paintwork". He supported the expulsion of the Militant Tendency and Neil's push to move the Labour Party toward the centre on economic and defence policy. During his work for as a Party official, Peter gained the "Prince of Darkness" nickname, which amused Neil, though he later came to condemn the "caricature of himself" that Peter had become.

As Director of Communications, Peter became close to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, both MPs at the time who were rapidly rising on the Opposition Benches. The three were described as inseparable, and had offices close together.

In 1990, Peter sought out a constituency and settled on Hartlepool, a safe Labour seat whose long-serving MP was retiring, conveniently located next to Tony's constituency of Sedgefield. Neil was furious at Peter's decision to abandon him before the election and cast him out from his inner circle, but he refrained from blocking Peter's selection, although he offered him the following gloomy advice: “I should not be hopeful, kid." Despite Neil's pessimism, Hartlepool proved open-minded enough to take a chance on a gay Londoner, and Peter managed to win the day with a bit of schmoozing and his considerable talent for campaigning. Roy tried to keep him on as Director of Communications, but Peter was widely disliked in the upper echelons of the Party for suppressing dissent within the Shadow Cabinet by controlling media access and for what many saw as the superficial slickness of the Party's new image. The NEC took a hard line on conflicts of interest, and with Neil no longer prepared to fight on his behalf, Peter was forced to resign as a party official the moment he was selected as the candidate for Hartlepool.

In Opposition[edit | edit source]

Peter won Hartlepool in 1992, amidst a depressing national defeat for the Party. Neil resigned as leader of the Labour Party and was replaced by John Smith, who distrusted Peter, and he found himself out of the favour of the leadership.

Peter, Tony, Gordon and Alastair

In 1994, after John Smith’s death, Peter was forced to choose between supporting Tony or Gordon as the next leader of the Party. Choosing Tony, he earned Gordon’s long-lasting hatred, who accused him of "treachery". Within a few hours of confirming his support for Tony, Gordon’s media man Charlie Whelan was spinning against him. However, Tony won the leadership, and along with Alastair Campbell and Anji Hunter, Peter became part of a small circle of influence around the new leader. He often had conflicts with prominent Labourites – with Robin Cook, John Prescott and Alastair, which normally ended in tantrums followed by shameful apologies.

He was nicknamed "Bobby" by Tony, who referred to him by this name in public speeches. Before the election, he wrote The Blair Revolution with Roger Liddle. He was not given any shadow Cabinet appointments, but was made Campaign Director for the 1997 general election, which Labour won by landslide.

The Prince of Darkness

First Time in Cabinet[edit | edit source]

Peter lobbied for a "proper job" in Cabinet, favouring the job of Minister for Europe, but Tony wanted to keep him close to Number 10 where his skills in organising people could be put to use, and he was made Minister Without Portfolio or "Minister Without A Job", as Alastair and John Prescott liked to joke.

In 1998, he became Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. After a few early successes, such as blocking a Murdoch takeover of Manchester United FC, he became embroiled in controversy, beginning with his furious response to being outed by Matthew Parris in October.

In December, as Christmas drew near, Charlie Whelan leaked a "thermonuclear bomb" to the media; the revelation that Peter had accepted an interest-free loan from his fiend, Geoffrey Robinson, millionaire and Paymaster General. This had been secret and undisclosed even to Peter’s building society. He was forced to resign two days before Christmas, followed by Charlie Whelan and Geoffrey Robinson. Number 10 was sympathetic; Alastair shed tears for Peter, and Cherie and Tony invited Peter and his partner to Chequers for the night as "part of the family".

Peter’s close friends alleged that he was close to taking his own life in his post-resignation depression. He was "nursed" by Robert Harris and his wife, Gill.

Second Time in Cabinet[edit | edit source]

Peter staring at the back of Mo's neck in a not-at-all sinister way

Peter was appointed to Cabinet for a second time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in a sensitive period. This earned him Mo Mowlam’s fury, who felt that he had betrayed her after the kindness she had shown him after his first resignation. He was notably more pro-Unionist than his predecessor, and was distrusted as a British patriot.

He got along famously badly with Ian Paisley, who made scathing personal attacks on Peter. It was in Northern Ireland that he was openly attacked for his sexuality, once leaving a town hall to a crowd of jeering people shouting "Homo".

He presided over the devolution of sovereignty to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which was an administrative success. While in Northern Ireland, he acquired two dogs – Bobby, a golden retriever and Jack, a Parson’s terrier. He still owns Jack in the present day.

Peter's second resignation

In early 2001, it emerged that a call had been made from the Department of Trade and Industry to the Home Office pressing for Srichand Hinduja to be given a British passport. Though it emerged that it was not Peter who had made this call, the media firestorm was more vicious than expected, and he was forced from office, begging and crying. This time, there was less sympathy, only anger that he had ruined a second chance. After his resignation, he was cleared of any wrongdoing, but it was already too late to return. He and David Blunkett are the only ministers ever to have resigned more than once from Cabinet.

On the Backbenches[edit | edit source]

Peter wins Hartlepool in 2001

Peter returned to the backbenches and began paying attention to his constituency, of which he had famously little interest. The common opinion among Hartlepudlians was that their MP was "barely present... we never see him" or that he was "too posh and poofy... not one of us". In the delayed election, he was challenged by Socialist Labour Leader and former leader of the NUM, Arthur Scargill, and feared for his seat. However, he was returned with a huge majority, and made a "gut-wrenching" victory speech in which he bellowed into his microphone that "I am a fighter and not a quitter!"

In Tony’s second term, Peter remained a prominent figure in the Blairite circle, though he was no longer in the inner circle, occupied by Alastair, Anji and Jonathan Powell. He returned to help deal with the media coverage of "Cheriegate", and in 2004, he resigned as an MP to become European Commissioner for Trade.

In Europe[edit | edit source]

Though a European job is famously a death sentence for a British politician, Peter took it up with great gusto. It allowed him the freedom to use his diplomatic skills and to emerge as a politician in his own right. He was unpopular among his EC colleagues for being uncompromising, and earned the resentment of the Irish and of French President Sarkozy due to his strong support for Free Trade and attacks on protectionism.

Son, Peter has weathered more scandals than you've had hot dinners.

He was involved in the "Bra wars", and was described as "the only man to have declared a Trade War on America... and won". He remains the only out gay person to hold international political power. From Brussels, his feud with Gordon continued as Gordon became Prime Minister. Peter openly said that he would rather resign as European Commissioner than give Gordon the pleasure of firing him.

In the summer of 2008, he attracted more controversy when the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne accused him of having been a guest on the yacht of Oleg Depripaska, an aluminium baron who had benefited from Peter’s relaxation of aluminium tariffs. However, the attack backfired, and George bore the brunt of the controversy when allegations arose that he had tried to lobby for a £50,000 donation to the Tory Party. Their mutual friend, Nat Rothschild, who was also caught in the scandal, supported Peter's case over George's.

Third Time in Cabinet[edit | edit source]

Peter returns to Cabinet in 2008

To the shock of just about everybody, Peter was returned to the Cabinet for a third time as Business Secretary and given a peerage by Gordon Brown. Announcing "third time lucky", he found himself swiftly becoming more powerful than he could have dreamed of ten years earlier, swallowing whole departments to add to his portfolio. He sat on 35/43 Cabinet Committees, had 11 ministers serving him, and one of the largest, most inflated budgets around the Cabinet table.

Gordon relied on Peter to cope with plots to remove him from the leadership, and the they found themselves as close as they had been pre-1994, though Peter still distrusted Ed Balls and his ilk. In 2009, after the disastrous EP elections, Peter halted a potential set of mass resignations that would have been the last straw for Gordon’s leadership, and was rewarded with a set of ceremonial titles. Allegedly, Gordon also tried to make Peter Deputy Prime Minister, but this was rejected as unconstitutional by the Cabinet Secretary. After the foiled attempts to oust Gordon from the leadership, Gordon became more reliant on him, and he was described by some as the most powerful man in the country.

Over the next few months, he staunchly defended his Cabinet colleagues against Gordon's fits of anger, protecting Alistair Darling from plans to remove him from the Treasury and make Ed Balls Chancellor in his place. In the aftermath of the economic crash, he pumped money in businesses, in particular with the car scrappage scheme, which is credited with saving the car manufacturing industry. This was a popular policy that was continued by the next Government. Less popular was the Digital Economy Bill, which was not properly scrutinised by Parliament and is generally considered unenforceable.

Though Peter admitted afterwards that he had known from about October 2009 that the election would be a disaster, he shone at the Labour Party conference with a rabble-rousing speech, and was greeted with unexpected popularity, having always been distrusted by the grassroots. This fulfilled Tony's prophecy from more than a decade earlier that his project would be complete "when the Labour Party learns to love Peter Mandelson".

Peter was put in charge of the 2010 general election campaign, which was lost badly, though it was said that his presence made it "a defeat rather than an annihilation". In the aftermath of the election, he and Alastair Campbell pressed Gordon to resign as the price for a "Rainbow Coalition", but this plan failed, and he resigned from the Shadow Cabinet after the coalition government was formed.

"Retirement"[edit | edit source]

Peter speedily published his memoirs The Third Man in a characteristically gleeful and gossipy manner, and followed this up with The Real PM? or Peter Mandelson: the Movie. Since leaving Cabinet, he has set up an international consultancy, been paid high sums for public speaking and has been employed part-time by investment bank Lazard Ltd, allegedly for £1m a year.

In 2010, the new leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband, who was sick to the back teeth of Mandelson's criticism, responded to the latest assessment of his leadership from the peer by saying that perhaps Peter should find "dignity in retirement". The comment went down about as well as could be expected and once again Peter came out relatively unscathed. For much of the 2010 parliament, Peter focused on building his private-sector business, glob-trotting and giving speeches about how the Labour Party could only win elections by updating New Labour rather than abandoning it. He worked on the "Yes to AV" campaign which ultimately lost the referendum on the voting system, and sometimes graced the Upper Chamber with his presence.

Following Labour losing the 2015 general election and the Conservatives gaining an overall majority in the House of Commons, Peter went straight into campaigning mode for the upcoming Labour leadership election. He backed Chuka Ummuna early on, but when he pulled out of the race Peter switched his backing to Liz Kendall. Kendall lost, and Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the party. Although Peter's actions when he heard the result are not know, he was probably either drinking heavily or banging his head against a solid object repeatedly. Peter came out with an article after the result, taking some of the blame for Corbyn winning and pointing out again that the only way to win a general election would be for the Labour Party to return to an updated New Labour strategy.

At Jeremy Corbyn's first meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party as leader, Peter decided to attend. As he walked in, it is alleged that he said "There's nothing more to be said". When asked if this was "the end", Peter just nodded in reply[1]. What made the incident even funnier was the fact that at the time it was understood that the Labour Party HQ was on fire[2]. The following day, Peter was rumoured to have been seen taking out a book from the Lords' library about the formation of the SDP[3]. Since then, Peter has taken to turning up to most of the PLP meetings and standing at the back glaring at people then giving cryptic messages to the waiting press outside. After a particularly heated PLP meeting discussing Corbyn's opposition to backing Cameron's plans to bomb Syria and the issue of whipping on the vote, Peter wandered out of the meeting once it had finished, telling the press that it had been "amazing".

Full List of Appointments
• Minister Without Portfolio (1997-1998)
• Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1998)
• Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1999-2001)
• European Commissioner for Trade (2004-2008)
• Secretary of State for Business (2008-2010)
• Lord President of the Council (2009-2010)
• First Secretary of State (2009-2010)
Greatest Moments
Date Summary Video Transcript
7/6/2001 Peter's slightly alarming victory speech in Hartlepool after he was returned in the 2001 general election "I'm a fighter, not a quitter!"
9/28/2009 Peter's 2009 conference speech, in which the Labour Party learns to stop worrying and love Peter Mandelson "If I can come back, we can come back!"

Sexuality and Relationships[edit | edit source]

Peter had a string of girlfriends as a teenager, though looking back, his close friend Keren Abse referred to them as "camp relationships". In a letter Peter sent to his best friend, Steve, aged 17, he wrote, of an evening spent with Rebecca Thomas: "We had a nice evening on Saturday, in a way. He thinks. Yes, it was nice. If you had been at home I would have rung you up when I got home on Saturday. Either for your advice or your blessing."

As a young man, Peter neither hid or flaunted his sexuality, and it took some of his closest friends years to discover that he was gay. He enjoyed the company of women, in particular, Jenny Jeger, the niece of a Labour MP, who allegedly became very attached to Peter and felt that he was using her to appear "normal".

Peter, Reinaldo and Bobby

While in his early thirties, Peter began a relationship with Peter Ashby. Ashby was a few years older than Peter, described as tall, bisexual and handsome. They had overlapped at the BYC and TUC, and began living together with a mutual friend, Sue Robertson. They were dubbed "Nice Peter" (Ashby) and "Nasty Peter" (Mandelson). In 1983, after Ashby shared a holiday with trade unionist friend, Kay Carberry, he fathered a son, Joe, who he and Peter helped to raise, with Peter as the child's godfather. The reasons for the disintegration of the Ashby-Mandelson relationship are suggested to be firstly Peter’s workload in his role as Director of Communications and secondly, and more crucially, Ashby being concerned at his son growing up with his father in a permanent relationship with a man. Ashby is now married and has children with his wife.

Peter, though silent in the public eye regarding his sexuality, joined a campaign against Section 28 in the 1980s, along with Matthew Parris, Nick de Jongh and Ian McKellen, who met in HEAVEN to mount a media campaign against the homophobic legislation. This was unsuccessful, though it was repealed in 2000 under Blair.

Peter was outed by the News of the World in the eighties, in a crudely titled editorial: "MY LOVE FOR GAY LABOUR BOSS", though his second outing by Matthew Parris on Newsnight in October 1998 was far more prominent. Peter was furious at the discussion of his private life, and the sudden intrusion of the media into his partner’s life, and went out of his way to gag the BBC. The friendship between Peter and Matthew was not damaged, and Peter later thanked him for getting it out in the open.

Since about 1997, Peter has been dating the partner of his friend, Howell James, who was John Major’s spin doctor. Reinaldo Avila da Silva was then a student at SOAS, and is nineteen years Peter’s junior. He came from middle class Rio de Janeiro, and is described as charismatic, charming fiercely intellectual and academic. Peter has been protective of the relationship, though the two made a public appearance together at the opening of the Dome on the eve of the Millennium. The relationship can be assumed to be strong and permanent, though the two men often spent long periods of time in different countries. Reinaldo has worked as an interpreter, a nurse and is now director of Peter’s company, set up to manage proceeds from his memoirs.

Appearance[edit | edit source]

From left to right; in his 20s, his 30s, aged 44, 47, 51, 55

Peter has brown eyes and brown hair, and has always had an underbite and a very prominent, jutting jaw, with an oval-shaped chin. The shape of his face has changed a lot as he became older, the lines becoming much less harsh. His nose is notably pointy, and sticks out at such an angle that it appears snub. It has grown longer with age. His eyes are not large and with age, he has somehow acquired light-coloured patches beneath his eyes. He has worn reading glasses since about 2005.

He grew a beard aged 18, which he shaved off in his early twenties, and had a moustache until he was about 40. During the mid to late 1990s, he swept his hair back in a 'mafioso' style, which showed off his prominent widow's peak. He grew his hair longer during 1999-2001, and acquired a fringe, parted on the right. (This fringe became one of his more recognisable features - when David Cameron gave his maiden speech, his mother chastitised him, saying that he needed a haircut so he could "stop looking like Peter Mandelson"). Around the age of 47-48 (early noughties), he hair went grey besides his ears, and the rest followed in about 2007-2008, when he was in his mid-fifties. In 2011, it is almost completely dark grey, but thick, and he doesn't have a bald patch. He has retained his fringe. He has dark bodily hair, notably on his arms, the backs of his hands (which he was alleged to have shaved off during the late 1990s) and his chest. This has thinned out with age, and is now much less noticeable, aside from on the backs of his hands, where it has always been thick.

He is tall, though he has bad posture, and tends to hunch his shoulders slightly. He was famously very lean until middle age, when in his early 50s, he visibly gained a lot of weight and thickened around the middle. He was at his largest in about 2006-2007, when he had a noticeable paunch, and remained roughly around this shape through his third time in Cabinet. Since leaving Government, he appears to have slimmed down slightly.

Portrayal[edit | edit source]

In the Media[edit | edit source]

Since his early thirties, Peter has been nicknamed "The Prince of Darkness" by the media, a name that he swings between enjoying and loathing. Neil Kinnock joked that "those who say that Peter is the Labour Party’s evil genius are only half right". This reputation has been used against him by the enemies to discredit him as manipulative and treacherous, most notably by Charlie Whelan, the right-wing press and by the Tory Opposition.

In Culture[edit | edit source]

Snake!Peter in Spitting Image

Peter was portrayed as having the body of an enormous yellow snake in Spitting Image, a cannibal and a hypnotist. He was the continual butt of jokes in Bremner, Bird and Fortune, being portrayed in various ways – as a swivel-headed android or as an "awkward poof". In Dead Ringers, he was shown as a camp character who was forever resigning. Running jokes in Have I Got News For You include references to Peter’s alleged evilness and his furious silence regarding his sexuality. He is parodied regularly in The Now Show and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, and in Private Eye as Reverend Blair’s Satanic churchwarden, "Comrade Mandelson" or a "Friend of Dorothy".

Paul Rhys as Peter in The Deal

He was portrayed by Paul Rhys in The Deal, and by Steven Mackintosh in Mo. In TONY! The Blair Musical, he was portrayed as a camp, serpentine character deeply in love with Tony Blair and grudges against John Prescott, Gordon and Alastair Campbell. He was played by Nigel Planer in The Hunt for Tony Blair.

The character of Sebastian Love from Little Britain is confirmed to be based on Peter, and Malcolm Tucker of The Thick Of It combines traits from Peter as well as Alastair in earlier episodes. Robert Harris has also referred to him as the inspiration for the lead character from his Cicero novels. The Pet Shop Boys wrote a love ballad, "I Get Along" about Peter’s second resignation and his shattered friendship with Tony as part of their Blair Trilogy.

In Fanon[edit | edit source]

Meme[edit | edit source]

Peter has a diverse range of characterisations. In the early meme, the Prince of Darkness image was played up, and he was portrayed as a villain or as a sinister, lecherous predator. Other interpretations include him as a retired, domesticated househusband, commonly paired with George Osborne, or as a loveable rogue, or a sly, whorish social climber. Alternatively, he has been woobified in a number of Blair-era fics, in response to his attitude towards his resignations.

Shipping[edit | edit source]

The most common partners are George Osborne (Mandelborne) and Alastair Campbell (Mandelbell). Secondary partners include Tony Blair and Gordon Brown (who together with Alastair and Peter make the NuLabOT4), Neil Kinnock (Kindelson), Charlie Whelan (Mandelan), Alistair Darling (Dandy), Reinaldo da Silva (Mandelsilva) and John Bercow (Mandelberc).

Prominent Portrayals in AUs[edit | edit source]
Girlband!Mandelson

He features heavily in the Undead!Mandelborne universe, in which he is paired with George, a vampire bat. He appears in the Hug-a-hoodie series, and is described by Harriet Harman as a misogynist.

In one of the largest and most developed universes, Girlband!AU, Petra Mandelson is a sensitive, temperamental singer who is paired with both Alison and Georgie. In Forumverse, he posts by the username of PrinceofDarkness247, and returns to the forum with his fellow New

Scheming, evil wizard Peter

Labourites to haunt the hapless admin, Hurpdurp.

In the Gorillaz!AU, he takes the role of Noodle, who reflects his resignations and reappointments with her apparent death in El Mañana. In the Steampunk!AU, he is a furtive merchant-turned-explorer who continually finds himself in trouble. In the New Labour Teen!AU, he comes to terms with his sexuality and gets bullied by Gordon’s friends. In the Toryshire!verse, he gives up politics for a benign existence in the countryside with Alastair, and in "Integral", he features as a twisted element in an authoritarian regime. He murders his colleagues and takes over the world in "And The World Fell Down". The snake!Peter verse is based on his Spitting Image interpretation, in which Peter can morph into a python at will.

Peter is also prominent in the abuse!verse-strap!verse-ToryCP!verse amalgamation, with varying roles depending on the strand involved.

The RP[edit | edit source]

Peter maintains a close friendship with fellow wizard John Bercow and has built a sentient robot called the Machine. Due to a mishap with an experimental potion, Peter spent some time as a werewolf. It was during his time suffering from lycanthropy that his relationship with George Osborne broke down and the two split. He has since been cured of the affliction.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. https://twitter.com/RobDotHutton/status/643467573519118336
  2. It was later discovered that it was in fact the building next to the Labour Party HQ that was on fire, but since when have we ever let the truth get in the way of a good story?
  3. https://twitter.com/Baronessjenkin/status/644229822068166656