Labour MPs urge Lord Mandelson to step down
Lord Mandelson has staunchly defended Labour’s record over its 13 years of government, stating that the party had achieved 80 percent of its targets, despite the opposition’s claims that Labour had failed in most of its promises and caused overriding debt problems in the country.
In his memoirs, entitled The Third Man, Lord Mandelson describes the tensions between the Labour MPs, particularly between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. He has blasted Labour leadership hopefuls who have criticised his memoirs, accusing them of not having read the book at all. A total of three Labour candidates have called on Lord Mandelson to step down from the party and Diana Abbott, one of the leadership hopefuls, described Lord Mandelson’s influence in politics as ’malign’.
Andy Burnham, also contesting for the leadership challenge, advised Lord Mandelson to ’leave the stage'after The Third Man earned him a place in the spotlight. David Milliband also criticised numerous excerpts from the book as ’self-destructive’; his brother, Ed Milliband asserted that the book was damaging to both Peter and to his party as a whole.
During an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Lord Mandelson also spoke of the relations between Britain and the United States and accused the US government of ’sweeping aside'its plans for Iraq after the conflict is over. He also expressed his regrets over the way in which the Labour government responded to the 2004 Hutton Report, in regards to the death of Dr David Kelly, a weapons expert.
Lord Mandelson admitted that he thought the chances of Labour forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats was less than 50 percent. He also proclaimed that if there hadn’t been a sufficient level of tension within the Labour Party during its years of government, there would not have been an incentive to help rebuild the Party and win three general elections. However, he also said that he would have liked to have ’gone further'than Brown in public service reform but he decided that it was best to look at things ‘positively’ with regards to Labour’s legacy in future years. Meanwhile, some Labour leadership candidates admitted that they hadn’t read his memoirs after all.
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