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Peter Mandelson is the best thing that ever happened to Labour

The Third Man, Peter Mandelson’s memoirs of his political career, features all the best tiffs and tantrums from the rise and fall of New Labour; the book offers a very personal testimony of the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and the ways in which they turned Labour to the right under the banner of their “New Labour” project. For many, it reads like an attempt to exculpate the modernisers from Labour’s ultimately chastening 2010 defeat.

Over the past 25 years, Mandelson has been central to this process of reform. Known for his ability as a back-room dealer and his flair for intrigue, Mandelson’s critics have painted him as Mephistophelean. But others have pointed out that the so-called Prince of Darkness was one of the most effective Ministers ever to walk into Whitehall, a man with an enviable ability to get things done.