When Mandelson met Maga: how Labour lord charmed Trump’s inner circle

Peter Mandelson was effective if controversial choice as ambassador before all went wrong at worst possible time'

Peter Mandelson was in his element. Lounging on a sofa one June evening at Butterworth's, a bistro serving as the gastronomical centre of the Maga movement in Washington DC, the recently appointed British ambassador was being honoured with a plaque that indicated he was easing his way into the conservative circles around Donald Trump.

The appointment of Mandelson, an architect of Tony Blair's New Labour project in the 1990s, had not been without controversy. He was the first political ambassador to the United States in almost half a century and had twice resigned from Labour governments in the past over scandals (not to mention his past association with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein).