Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson was born on 21 October 1953 and is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010.
68 Facts About Peter Mandelson
2.
Peter Mandelson was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010.
3.
From 1985 to 1990, Mandelson served as Labour's Director of Communications.
4.
Peter Mandelson served as Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004 and held a number of Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
5.
Peter Mandelson was the European Commissioner for Trade between 2004 and 2008.
6.
Peter Mandelson was one of several key people responsible for the rebranding of the Labour Party as New Labour before its victory in the 1997 election.
7.
Peter Mandelson was twice forced to resign from the Cabinet before leaving Parliament to take up an appointment as a European Commissioner.
8.
Peter Mandelson later rejoined the Cabinet for a third time after being created a life peer, sitting on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.
9.
Peter Mandelson is the only person to have held the position of First Secretary of State as a Peer.
10.
Peter Mandelson was born in Hendon, Middlesex, on 21 October 1953, the son of Mary Joyce and George Norman Mandelson.
11.
Peter Mandelson's father was the advertising manager of The Jewish Chronicle who was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Dragoons in the Second World War.
12.
On his mother's side, Peter Mandelson is a grandson of Herbert Morrison, the London County Council Leader and Labour Cabinet Minister in the Attlee ministry.
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Peter Mandelson attended Garden Suburb School, and between 1965 and 1972, Hendon County Grammar School.
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Peter Mandelson was elected to Lambeth Borough Council in 1979 but stood down in 1982, disillusioned with the state of Labour politics.
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Peter Mandelson then worked for some time as a television producer at London Weekend Television on Weekend World, where he formed a friendship with his superior John Birt.
16.
In 1986 Peter Mandelson ran the campaign at the Fulham by-election in which Labour defeated the Conservative Party.
17.
Peter Mandelson ceased being a Labour Party official in 1990 when he was selected as Labour candidate for the constituency of Hartlepool, which was then considered a safe seat.
18.
Peter Mandelson was first elected to the House of Commons at the 1992 general election, and made several speeches outlining his strong support for the European Union.
19.
In 1994 Kate Garvey suggested that Peter Mandelson, should adopt a "nom de guerre" throughout Blair's leadership bid, so that he might conceal his considerable role within the campaign team.
20.
Peter Mandelson agreed to be called "Bobby" for the duration and was thanked by Blair using this name in his victory speech.
21.
Peter Mandelson was appointed as a Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office, where his job was to co-ordinate within government.
22.
Peter Mandelson gave evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee for Culture and Heritage in June 2000.
23.
In what was seen as a reference to the close interest in the Dome from Peter Mandelson, known at the time as so-called "Dome Secretary" and his successor Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Page told the committee: "I made several attempts to persuade ministers that standing back from the Dome would be good for them as well as good for the Dome".
24.
Peter Mandelson appointed a "Net Tsar" to lead the UK in what he termed the "new industrial revolution".
25.
Peter Mandelson contended that he had deliberately not taken part in any decisions relating to Robinson.
26.
Peter Mandelson was out of the Cabinet for ten months.
27.
On 24 January 2001, Peter Mandelson resigned from the Government for a second time, following accusations of using his position to influence a passport application.
28.
Peter Mandelson had contacted Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien on behalf of Srichand Hinduja, an Indian businessman who was seeking British citizenship and whose family firm was to become the main sponsor of the "Faith Zone" in the Millennium Dome.
29.
Peter Mandelson insisted he had done nothing wrong and was exonerated by an independent inquiry by Sir Anthony Hammond, which concluded that neither Peter Mandelson nor anyone else had acted improperly.
30.
At the 2001 general election Peter Mandelson was challenged by Arthur Scargill of the Socialist Labour Party and by John Booth, a former Labour Party press officer standing as "Genuine Labour", but Peter Mandelson was re-elected with a large majority.
31.
Peter Mandelson's appointment was announced in the summer and on 8 September 2004 Mandelson resigned his seat by submitting his name as Steward of the Manor of Northstead.
32.
Peter Mandelson was succeeded as MP for Hartlepool by Iain Wright.
33.
On 22 November 2004 Peter Mandelson became Britain's European Commissioner, taking the trade portfolio.
34.
Peter Mandelson was a member of 35 of the 43 Cabinet committees and subcommittees.
35.
The Independent reported that according to their Whitehall sources, Peter Mandelson was persuaded that tough laws were needed to reduce online copyright infringement following an intensive lobbying campaign by influential people in the music and film industry.
36.
The Times reported after the Corfu meeting that an unnamed Whitehall source had confirmed that before this trip, Peter Mandelson had shown little personal interest in the Digital Britain agenda, which has been ongoing for several years.
37.
Peter Mandelson made the formal announcement that technical measures, including disconnection, were to be included in the Digital Economy Bill two months later on 7 August 2009.
38.
An opinion poll conducted by the centre-left think tank Compass found in March 2009 that Peter Mandelson was less disliked by party members than Deputy Leader Harriet Harman.
39.
Tony Blair's assertion in 1996 that "my project will be complete when the Labour Party learns to love Peter Mandelson" was seen as prophetic in late September 2009 when Mandelson was enthusiastically received at the party conference in Brighton.
40.
Peter Mandelson has been criticised for so far not disclosing his clients.
41.
In 1999,2008,2009,2011,2012,2013 and 2014 Peter Mandelson was an invited guest of the Bilderberg Group and attended the annual conferences.
42.
In January 2011, it was announced that Peter Mandelson would serve as a senior adviser to the advisory investment banking firm, Lazard.
43.
In May 2011 it was revealed that there was speculation that Peter Mandelson had been approached by China to be a candidate for the leadership of the International Monetary Fund, even though Peter Mandelson had not been a finance minister or headed a central bank.
44.
However, it was then speculated that Peter Mandelson would stand to succeed Pascal Lamy as Director-General of the World Trade Organization, backed by David Cameron.
45.
Peter Mandelson wished for an early general election to force Corbyn out.
46.
Peter Mandelson described the result as "not undeserved", arguing that Corbyn's leadership was one of the main reasons for Labour's defeat.
47.
Peter Mandelson proceeded to lobby governments around the world for the job, arguing that the WTO had "reached a fork in the road" and had to be "picked up and put back on its feet".
48.
Peter Mandelson was overlooked in favour of the Conservative Liam Fox due to his opposition to Brexit.
49.
Peter Mandelson's candidacy ended when Fox beat him to win the nomination of the UK government.
50.
In 2021 it was reported that Peter Mandelson had been advising Labour leader Keir Starmer on moving the party beyond Corbyn's leadership and broadening its electoral appeal.
51.
On 22 April 2005 The Times revealed that Peter Mandelson had spent the previous New Year's Eve on the yacht of Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, which was at the centre of a major EU investigation and although it did not allege impropriety, it did state that Peter Mandelson's visit was inappropriate for a serving European Commissioner.
52.
In 2008 Peter Mandelson was hospitalised, suffering from a kidney stone.
53.
Ironically, during the previous week Peter Mandelson had drunk a glass of Chinese yoghurt in front of reporters in order to show his confidence in Chinese dairy products, although his own kidney stones were unrelated.
54.
In October 2008 Peter Mandelson was reported to have maintained private contacts over several years with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, most recently on holiday in August 2008 on Deripaska's yacht at Taverna Agni on the Greek island of Corfu.
55.
News of the contacts sparked criticism because, as European Union Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson had been responsible for two decisions to cut aluminium tariffs that had benefited Deripaska's United Company Rusal.
56.
Peter Mandelson denied that there had been a conflict of interest and insisted that he had never discussed aluminium tariffs with Deripaska.
57.
Peter Mandelson said that meeting business figures from "across the range" in emerging economies was part of his brief as EU Trade Commissioner.
58.
On 29 October 2008, while Peter Mandelson was on a ministerial visit to Moscow, it was alleged in the British press that Valery Pechenkin, the head of security at Deripaska's company Basic Element, had organised a swift entry visa for Peter Mandelson when he turned up in Moscow to visit Deripaska in 2005.
59.
In June 2013, writing for the Progress website, Peter Mandelson warned Labour it risked harming its election chances if affiliated trade unions continued to "manipulate parliamentary selections" as was alleged in the 2013 Labour Party Falkirk candidate selection controversy.
60.
In 2019, UK's Channel 4 aired an episode of Dispatches where a source close to Epstein claimed that Peter Mandelson made a phonecall to Epstein while he was in prison after pleading guilty for trafficking minors in order to set up a meeting with Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan.
61.
Peter Mandelson talked to bank CEOs on a regular basis, including Mr Dimon.
62.
Peter Mandelson was, until 8 October 2008, the President of Central School of Speech and Drama.
63.
Peter Mandelson was replaced in this un-remunerated post by playwright Harold Pinter, who died two months later.
64.
In 2011, Peter Mandelson was guest of honour at Herbert Morrison Primary School in Vauxhall, South London.
65.
Peter Mandelson is gay and he is said to be 'intensely private' about his personal life.
66.
Peter Mandelson has lived with his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva, a Brazilian translator, since March 1998.
67.
Peter Mandelson preferred to keep his personal life private and as such did not respond.
68.
Peter Mandelson was outed again by Matthew Parris in 1998 on the BBC programme Newsnight.