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Lord Peter Mandelson, a former Labor cabinet minister and EU commissioner, will become Britain’s next ambassador to Washington, with the immediate task of avoiding a trade war with Donald Trump.
Mandelson will take up the role next month, according to UK government officials, in the latest appointment by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of a veteran hitter from the Tony Blair era.
Starmer chose 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 experience 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 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 urging the prime minister to choose Mandelson, according to government sources.
Mandelson was also backed by 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.
Mandelson’s appointment is a risk for Starmer, given the Labor peer’s ability to attract publicity and controversy.
However, Mandelson’s supporters 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 the Blair government.
Trump has threatened to impose a global tariff on imports to the United States and Mandelson’s first task will be to try to persuade the president not to impose a tax on British exports.
Starmer has said he “completely rejects” the idea that Britain will have to choose between the United States or the EU on trade issues; Mandelson also believes that better commercial conditions can be agreed with both.
He told the Times How to win an election podcast earlier this year: “We have to work our way through this and have, I’m afraid, the best of both worlds. We have to find a way to have our cake and eat it.”
Mandelson’s appointment, first reported by the Times, comes after weeks of deliberations. Starmer was frustrated, according to those close to him, by a report last month in the Financial Times that Lammy supported Mandelson’s candidacy. “It felt like he was being bounced,” said one ally.
Downing Street insiders were also irritated by Mandelson’s suggestion that Nigel Farage, the UK’s reformist leader, could be a useful “bridge” to the new Trump administration.
But Starmer ultimately decided to use Mandelson’s experience and political knowledge (he rose to prominence as the Labor Party’s communications director in the 1980s) to manage the new relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States.
Mandelson, whom Brown recalled from Brussels in 2008 to help save his troubled government, earned the nickname “the Prince of Darkness” for his mastery of the political arts.
He takes up the job in Washington as a political appointee rather than a career diplomat, overtaking former Labor 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 authority of a prime minister,” said an official close to Starmer.
“He is obviously used to doing diplomacy in his old EU trade job, but he will have to improve those skills a bit and remember that he is a diplomat and not a minister.” Lammy broke the news to Mandelson last week.
Although Mandelson has argued that Britain can secure better trading terms with the United States, UK ministers are highly skeptical about whether a full free trade deal with Washington is possible.
The United States would demand, in any such negotiations, access to the British market for American agricultural products. Some, such as chlorine-dipped chicken, are banned in Britain.
David Henig, a trade expert, said Mandelson could succeed. “Trump runs a medieval court,” he added. “That’s the kind of environment where someone who can track who’s in and who’s out will be very valuable. You could see that the noble Lord was quite good at it.”
But Henig said Mandelson and Britain should avoid being drawn into trade talks with the United States “which would lead to a focus on what we disagree with the United States on 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 firm, but has continued to participate in public life. He recently failed in his bid to become chancellor of Oxford University.
Mandelson also has strong ties to China, a part of his resume that he probably won’t highlight when he’s 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 could be extended, given his proximity to the Trump team. He helped arrange an early meeting between Starmer and Trump at New York’s Trump Tower in September and facilitated talks with the prime minister’s staff.
Pierce has been linked to the FCDO permanent secretary vacancy in London.
