Kmflett's Blog

Tony Benn has a number of references to Peter Mandelson in his Diaries. One from 1987 is below

Monday 16th February 1987. Today we had a meeting of the NEC and the Shadow Cabinet, the first since Neil Kinnock became leader, Kinnock introduced the meeting and spoke for about twenty minutes.. We went on to Peter Mandelson who said a few words. I find Mandelson a threatening figure for the future of the Party. He came in from the media eighteen months ago and has taken over

Of course in 1987 Mandelson’s Epstein links did not exist, and reported links to China were long into the future. Benn however clearly had the measure of what Mandelson represented for the Labour Party.

Keir Starmer then a young socialist activist likely would have been unaware of Mandelson except that also in 1987 he interviewed Tony Benn for the Socialist Alternatives magazine. The theme of the interview was very much the kind of Labour Party Benn thought should be developing against what people like Mandelson were doing.

Mandelson is not mentioned in the printed version, which of course would have been edited. Starmer in 2026 might well claim that Benn never referred to him, but given Benn’s view of the impact of Mandelson on Labour that seems questionable.

What Starmer really believes. Interview with Tony Benn in 1987 | Kmflett’s Blog