Lord Peter Mandelson, former Labour cabinet minister and EU commissioner, is to become Britain’s next ambassador to Washington, with an immediate mission to avert a trade war with Donald Trump.
Mandelson will take up the post next month, according to UK government officials, in the latest appointment by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of a veteran heavy-hitter from the Tony Blair era.
Starmer picked Mandelson to succeed Dame Karen Pierce, who has served in Washington since 2020 and is known as “the Trump whisperer” for her close contacts with the incoming US president and his team.
Mandelson’s expertise in the field of trade — he was business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government and held the EU trade portfolio in Brussels — will be crucial in his new role.
Downing Street is expected to confirm Mandelson’s appointment on Friday and it has already been notified to Trump’s team, with whom Starmer is trying to quickly foster good relations.
Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff and now Starmer’s national security adviser, is among those who urged the prime minister to pick Mandelson, according to government insiders.
Mandelson also had the backing of David Lammy, foreign secretary, and Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff. Powell and McSweeney held talks with Trump’s team in Florida and Washington earlier this month.
The appointment of Mandelson is something of a risk for Starmer, given the Labour peer’s ability to attract publicity and controversy.
However Mandelson’s backers said he has vast international experience, including from his time as EU trade commissioner from 2004 to 2008. He previously served as a minister in Blair’s government.
Trump has threatened to impose a global tariff on imports to the US and Mandelson’s first task will be try to persuade the president not to place a levy on British exports.
Starmer has said he “utterly rejects” the idea that Britain will have to choose between the US or the EU in trade matters; Mandelson also believes better trade terms can be agreed with both.
He told the Times’s How to win an Election podcast earlier this year: “We have got to navigate our way through this and have, I’m afraid, the best of both worlds. We have got to find a way to have our cake and eat it.”
Mandelson’s appointment, first reported by the Times, comes after weeks of deliberation. Starmer was frustrated, according to those close to him, by a report in the Financial Times last month that Lammy was backing Mandelson’s candidature. “He felt like he was being bounced,” said one ally.
Downing Street insiders were also irritated by Mandelson’s suggestion that Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader, might be a useful “bridge” to the new Trump administration.
But ultimately Starmer decided to deploy Mandelson’s experience and political nous — he first rose to prominence as Labour’s communications director in the 1980s — to manage the new UK-US relationship.
Mandelson, who was recalled from Brussels by Brown in 2008 to help save his ailing government, earned the nickname “the Prince of Darkness” for his mastery of the political arts.
He takes over the Washington job as a political appointee rather than as a career diplomat, heading off former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, who had also been linked to the job.
“Donald Trump will know that Peter comes from the political family of the British government and speaks with the prime minister’s authority,” said one official close to Starmer.
“He’s obviously used to doing diplomacy in his old EU trade job, but he’ll have to brush those skills up a bit and remember he’s a diplomat rather than a minister.” Lammy broke the news to Mandelson last week.
Although Mandelson has argued that Britain can secure better trade terms with the US, UK ministers are highly sceptical about whether a full free trade agreement with Washington is possible.
The US would demand, in any such negotiation, UK market access for American farm products. Some, such as chlorine-dipped chicken, are banned in Britain.
David Henig, a trade expert, said Mandelson could succeed. “Trump is running a medieval court,” he added. “That’s the sort of environment in which someone who can track who is in — and who is out — will be pretty valuable. You could see the noble lord being pretty good at that.”
But Henig said Mandelson and Britain should avoid getting dragged into trade talks with the US “which would lead to a focus on what we disagree on with the US and angry presidential tweets”.
Mandelson has told friends that his new job means he will have to put his business interests “in cold storage”.
He co-founded Global Counsel, an international advisory company, but has remained engaged in public life. He recently failed in a bid to become chancellor of Oxford university.
Mandelson also has strong links with China, a part of his CV he is unlikely to highlight when in Washington. Until 2023 he was honorary president of the Great Britain China Centre, a non-departmental public body supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
There had been speculation in Whitehall that Pierce’s stay at the Washington embassy might be extended, given her proximity to Trump’s team. She helped to arrange an early meeting between Starmer and Trump at Trump Tower in New York in September, and has facilitated discussions with the prime minister’s staff.
Pierce has been linked to the vacancy of permanent secretary at the FCDO in London.
