Peter Mandelson files reveal The Thick of It may have been closer to reality than we knew
‘I would make sure you never regret it,’ Mandelson told Cabinet minister David Lammy ahead of his appointment as ambassador to the UK
It’s said that art imitates life. When life starts imitating art – and the former is the government, the latter political satire – you know you’re in trouble.
Newly released documents reveal Mandelson wrote a note in 2024 to the then Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, about his looming appointment as ambassador to the US. “Thankfully, the media speculation has gone away and I hope this was not too irritating to you. I just wanted you to know that if you were minded to appoint me I would make sure you never regret it,” Mandelson wrote. Oh dear.
Also disclosed was the chaos behind a Labour wheeze to present Donald Trump with his very own red ministerial box. Less than a month before the US President’s UK state visit, it seems the arrangements still hadn’t been sorted. “The saga goes on... This is like something out of Thick of it... I have gone tonto on this,” Mandelson wrote to a Downing Street official.
We’d like to think this was a brief moment of comic incompetence, but given stumbling Keir Starmer’s many missteps, we wouldn’t bank on it.
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