Mandy revels in memoir ‘bombshell’ controversy
By politics.co.uk staff
An unrepentant Peter Mandelson has shrugged of criticisms of his political memoir by insisting that his book would help the future of the Labour party.
The former business secretary has been attacked by Labour leadership contenders for revealing further details of the fraught relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown throughout the New Labour years.
Read politics.co.uk’s review of The Third Man here
“I know for some people inside the Westminster village it will have been dropped like some kind of controversial explosive bombshell… but I wrote it for the voting general public,” he said on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.
David Miliband said the memoirs had been “destructive and self-destructive”. Ed Miliband said the memoirs were “sad and damaging for Peter”. Andy Burnham said Lord Mandelson loved the spotlight and added: “It’s time to leave the change.”
The memoirs, serialised in the Times newspaper, portray former prime minister Mr Blair as a passive figure, while because of Lord Mandelson’s return to government its narrative structure becomes dominated by Mr Brown.
“All the people who have been sounding off… they hadn’t read the book,” Lord Mandelson said.
“I think there’s a very important and interesting story to be told about the government. But also because I think it’s for the future – both for members of the voting public but also for members of the Labour party.”
Lord Mandelson conceded that Mr Blair’s education and health reforms were left unfinished but insisted that New Labour had achieved 80% of what it had set out to achieve.
He claimed the “creative tension” between Mr Blair and Mr Brown had made New Labour’s many election victories possible but conceded that after the Iraq war “things were not beautiful”.
