Kmflett's Blog

Government papers released on 11th March 2026 revealed that when Peter Mandelson was dropped as US Ambassador in 2025 he demand a pay off of over £500,000 representing the remainder of his 4 year contact. In reality, as a civil servant he was paid his notice of three months and an additional payment as part of a settlement agreement. The terms would have prevented Mandelson from pursuing a claim for unfair dismissal at an Employment Tribunal, although since he had not done the two years service to qualify any claim would have needed to be creative. Ed Davey was right to suggest that Mandelson should pay that sum to a charity. Kemi Badenoch displays an expected ignorance of employment law by suggesting he should not have received it at all.

However the whole matter brings to mind again the view Tony Benn formed of Mandelson thirty years ago. He recorded an assessment, which was made in a comment to the then Labour MP for Bishop Auckland, Derek Foster, in his Diary on 6th December 1996 just months before Labour won a landslide victory in the May 1997 Election.

Benn said ‘I think he is really a bad influence

It underlines again that Benn and others on the left had the measure of Mandelson 30 years ago, while Blair and later Starmer did not or in the latter case simply wasnt bothered.