When Peter Mandelson was asked if he was going to be made ambassador to Washington during the run-up to Christmas last year, he had a well-rehearsed reply. ‘Oh no,’ he would say coyly. ‘Not for me. I’ve no interest in being a hotel manager this late in my life.’
It was a typically urbane way for him to stave off enquiries, but few believed his denials and they were right not to. On December 20, Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that the colourful former Cabinet minister would, indeed, be our next man in Washington.
Mandelson won’t take up the post in time to attend Donald Trump‘s inauguration on Monday, but it won’t be long before he moves into the second most sought-after residence in Washington DC after the White House: the British ambassador’s residence at 3100 Massachusetts Avenue.
This magnificent mansion designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens – which underwent a five-year, £119 million refurbishment that was completed in 2023 – has become the ultimate symbol of British soft power since it was opened in 1930.
And its new custodian is to the manor born. Mandelson has always enjoyed the high life, especially at other people’s expense – and hasn’t always chosen his friends wisely.
He once provoked a scandal by staying on a yacht belonging to the controversial Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in 2008, and also hung out with the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, even staying in his New York home when Epstein was in prison for soliciting prostitution from a minor (although Mandelson says that he never had any kind of professional or business relationship with Epstein, nor has any memory of staying in his New York home).
Suffice to say, the Labour grandee, who twice resigned from Tony Blair‘s Cabinet under a cloud, will be in his element as our man in Washington. At his palatial residence, with its dazzling grand staircase, he will be greeted by guests with his formal title ‘Your Excellency’.
Peter Mandelson and his husband Reinaldo Avila Da Silva at their wedding in 2023
He will be able to call upon a staff of hundreds based in the British Embassy, which operates from a modern office building next to the ambassador’s residence
As a former globetrotting politician, Mandelson is no stranger to the residence, with its eight bedrooms, including a suite for visiting royalty, heads of state and prime ministers.
Its impressive art collection includes a portrait of the late Queen by Andy Warhol. And downstairs, off the kitchen, there is a silver vault, where 18 toast racks hang on hooks. Afternoon tea is served on Royal Doulton china.
There are liveried butlers, footmen, maids, chefs, gardeners, and a chauffeur-driven Bentley. It’s the closest thing that Washington has to Downton Abbey.
As ambassador, Mandelson will host sumptuous dinners in the grand ballroom, where the menus are written in French. It was in this majestic setting, with its marble columns and glittering chandeliers, that the late Queen entertained a succession of American presidents. In the same ballroom, Margaret Thatcher held dinners for President Reagan, her political soulmate, as they formed probably the closest link between London and Washington there has ever been.
There will be the usual stampede for tickets to the garden party to celebrate the King’s official birthday in June that will be held in the landscaped grounds.
I hear that Mandelson is already working on securing the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, which would earn him serious brownie points with President Trump, who makes no secret of his admiration of the Royal Family.
A vivid illustration of how important the monarchy is in the diplomatic exchanges between Britain and the US came after the death of the Queen.
Over the years, meticulous plans had been drawn up over what to do in the event of her passing, to the point that an aide took to travelling with a black dress in their luggage so the outgoing ambassador, Dame Karen Pierce, would have suitable attire when the time came.
But no one was prepared for an unexpected message from the White House on the day of Her Majesty’s death, September 8, 2022: ‘What time could President Biden drop by to pay his respects?’
A book of condolence had been set up and a portrait was in place, but the residence was in the middle of its renovation programme at the time and its enviable eight acres of lawns and greenhouses, normally primed to provide a wide variety of blooms for the residence’s spectacular floral displays, were hopelessly ill-prepared.
So an aide had to be dispatched to the nearest Trader Joe’s supermarket to buy a selection of flowers to compose an arrangement fit for the man from the White House.
There are liveried butlers, footmen, maids, chefs, gardeners, and a chauffeur-driven Bentley
As a former globetrotting politician, Mandelson is no stranger to the residence, with its eight bedrooms, including a suite for visiting royalty, heads of state and prime ministers
Mandelson has impeccable royal connections thanks to the many private meetings he had with Charles – then Prince of Wales – when he was a Cabinet minister under Blair and Gordon Brown.
As we have revealed, he will be conspicuously absent from Monday’s inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the US. Instead, Dame Karen, the first woman to hold the most coveted post in the diplomatic service, will fly the flag for the government.
Mandelson’s appointment represents another first: he will be the first openly gay British ambassador to be posted to Washington, and Reinaldo Avila da Silva, 52, a Brazilian translator whom he married in 2023, will be living with him at his official residence.
They will immediately become one of the leading gay power couples in Washington political circles, alongside Scott Bessent, a hedge-fund billionaire who is to be Trump’s Treasury Secretary, and his husband, New York City prosecutor John Freeman. Bessent, who is close to Mandelson, promises to be an important ally on Capitol Hill.
Many friends of Mandelson, dubbed the ‘Prince of Darkness’ in the early days of New Labour as he was so steeped in the black arts of political spin, suspected that the timing of his marriage to Reinaldo, after 27 years together, was the clearest sign that he was manoeuvring for the ambassador’s job. After all, one of his predecessors, Sir Christopher Meyer, had been advised it was politically expedient to be married before taking up the role – getting wed to his glamorous partner Catherine only the day before they left for Washington in 1997.
One source close to Mandelson told me: ‘Peter is a cunning fox and knew it would be smoother and easier all round if he introduces Reinaldo as his husband rather than his boyfriend.’
Our new ambassador will need all his charm and guile to repair the Labour government’s relations with the White House following a disastrous episode during the presidential election campaign. Almost 100 Labour activists went to America to campaign for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris – provoking a furious Trump to accuse Labour of ‘blatant political interference’ and lodge a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission.
There are also some indelicate historical tweets posted by senior Labour figures. Most notoriously, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy branded Trump ‘a woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’ and described him as ‘a tyrant in a toupee’. But even Mandelson has form in this area. In 2019, he said even those with a sneaking admiration for Trump regard him as ‘reckless and a danger’ and ‘little short of a white nationalist racist’.
As an ardent European who despised Brexit, he is seemingly not the most politically suitable candidate to build bridges with a man such as Trump. But schmoozing comes naturally to the serpentine Mandelson, and in his efforts to win over his new hosts, he will do what he has always done: gossip, perform and maintain a laser-like focus on connecting himself to the centre of power.
As something of a party animal, Mandelson – whose personal wealth is estimated at £20million, having made a small fortune through his international lobbying firm, Global Counsel – will be in big demand on Washington’s social circuit. There will be invitations to the opera, the ballet, the theatre, the most powerful embassies and State banquets.
In many ways, Mandelson is a natural diplomat; and if he can get himself plugged into the heart of the White House, he will undoubtedly emerge as one of the most influential figures in the Starmer government.
He will be able to call upon a staff of hundreds based in the British Embassy, which operates from a modern office building next to the ambassador’s residence. One senior diplomat told me: ‘The embassy serves a vital diplomatic mission in its own right. It is a visible sign of the special relationship between the UK and the US. This building puts us on the map in Washington DC and projects the best of British.’
The gilded life in Washington is a long way from the rather more down-to-earth environs of Hartlepool, where Mandelson was the MP from 1992 until he moved to Brussels as EU commissioner for trade in 2004.
There is a statue of Churchill at the British Embassy in DC. Mandelson is adamant that the ‘special relationship’ – a phrase first used by Winston Churchill in a speech in 1946 – still exists
This Andy Warhol portrait of the late Queen hangs on the wall of his residence
The posting is another extraordinary political rebound for the politician who recently campaigned for the post of Oxford University Chancellor only to see the job go to the former Conservative leader Lord Hague.
The US posting, however, was the prize he craved.
Mandelson is the first non-career diplomat in Washington since the Labour prime minister Jim Callaghan made his son-in-law, the journalist Peter Jay, ambassador in 1977.
Mandelson, unlike Jay, has vast political experience. He was Trade Secretary and Northern Ireland Secretary under Tony Blair, Business Secretary under Gordon Brown and an EU trade commissioner for four years.
While he is no longer very close to Blair, Mandelson is a shameless name-dropper. He will big up his Blair connections at every opportunity, as the former PM is still popular across the pond.
The appointment is a risk for Starmer, but No 10 judges that Mandelson’s experience will be invaluable as the world braces for a second Trump presidency and the threat of global tariffs on imports to the US. Any tariffs could have a huge impact on the already flatlining British economy.
Mandelson will also have a vital role in crafting a British foreign policy that seeks closer ties to the EU while keeping President Trump on side.
Another source told me: ‘Peter hasn’t been this excited about a new job in years. It’s a big step for him. He’s never been a foreign minister, let alone an ambassador, but as an EU commissioner he perfected the art of diplomacy with 27 other countries. He was hugely respected even by the likes of [former MEP] Nigel Farage.
‘He is positively purring with pleasure at the thought of the pampered lifestyle. The silver service. The butlers. It’s the lifestyle he’s always wanted. It’s the lifestyle he always thought he was entitled to. Now he can have it, and someone else is paying for it.’
Mandelson is adamant that the ‘special relationship’ – a phrase first used by Winston Churchill in a speech in 1946 – still exists.
And he’s already made one important political connection. While Mandelson may be missing from Monday’s inauguration, he was invited to the £150,000 ‘Stars and Stripes and Union Jack Party’ on the rooftop of Washington’s Hay-Adams Hotel last night.
Staged by the businessman Arron Banks, who helped bankroll the Brexit campaign in 2016, the guest of honour was Farage, the leader of Reform UK and a confidant of Trump.
The irony of this will not be lost on the metropolitan Mandelson. The former EU commissioner, who campaigned so vigorously against Brexit, is cultivating Farage, once his bete noire, to help open doors to the Trump White House.
