UK:PETER MANDELSON yesterday admitted he sought the sanction of Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair before agreeing to incumbent Gordon Brown's offer of a return to the cabinet for the third time.
Mr Blair told Mr Mandelson the decision on whether to take the role of business secretary, and abandon his post as EU trade commissioner early, was "a no-brainer".
Mr Mandelson said he had been surprised to be offered the job. "I took some time to say yes, but in the end I thought it was the only thing I could and should do," he said.
The appointment, which is still causing shockwaves in London, has led to tensions among some former Blairites who had set their minds on trying to oust Mr Brown, believing he is going to lose the party at the next election.
A News of the World-ICM poll of Britain's 192 most marginal parliamentary seats put the Tories on 43 per cent, Labour on 34 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 15 per cent - and in some estimates this would give David Cameron's Conservatives a 78-seat majority.
At 11.5 per cent, the swing from Labour to Tory in the marginal seats was higher than the national swing.
In a TV interview, Mr Mandelson twice failed to take up the suggestion that Mr Brown was certain to lead Labour into the next election. Elsewhere at the weekend he said he would be "joined at the hip" in future with Mr Brown, but he must be aware that if the polls still look gruesome for the prime minister, he will be seen as a focus of any plot. He insisted that this was not his aim, saying: "I have always been a member of the Labour family and when times gets tough, families pull together.
"We are all part of the same team now . . . it is what the country needs."
Mr Mandelson also revealed he had spoken to children's secretary Ed Balls twice on Saturday. He said the prime minister told him it was not true that Mr Balls had argued he should not be brought back into British politics. "I don't see any problem between [Balls] and me. We have a very, very similar view of the situation and what we have to do to dig ourselves out of it."
Mr Balls has admitted that Mr Mandelson's return was a risk, but insisted it could work. Another Brownite cabinet minister insisted: "I think it will work. It is not a slam dunk, but it is brave."
Other members of the cabinet, including Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, have insisted Mr Mandelson has been brought back to strengthen the economic team. Mr Mandelson also said he had no role in the reorganisation within Downing Street, including the removal of Mr Brown's press adviser Damian McBride from frontline briefing. "It is not my job to do that," he insisted. "I have never met Damian McBride in my life."
He revealed he had been asked to go to Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, and assumed it was to discuss what advice he could give on the reshuffle. Mr Mandelson has been in regular contact with the prime minister, initially over how to keep the Doha world trade round intact, but increasingly to discuss domestic politics.- (Guardian service)