BRITAIN:SOME SENIOR Labour figures reacted warmly yesterday to Peter Mandelson's shock return to Gordon Brown's cabinet as secretary of state for business.
Justice secretary Jack Straw said he was "delighted" by the return of Mr Brown's sometime friend and ally, while former home secretary David Blunkett described the move as "extremely smart".
But the Conservatives went on an immediate offensive, with foreign affairs spokesman William Hague leading the charge that the prime minister had shown "a stunning failure of judgment".
With an eye to tensions and reported divisions inside the Brown cabinet, Mr Hague said: "In bringing Peter Mandelson back - the man who created Labour spin - he [Mr Brown] has broken his promise to govern in an honest and open way."
Mr Hague also suggested that Mr Mandelson's appointment "was designed to distract" from changes that should have been made.
"By leaving in place a chancellor [Alistair Darling] who has failed and a foreign secretary [David Miliband] who has undermined him at every opportunity, Gordon Brown has also been exposed as weak," he said.
"With this bizarre reshuffle, the prime minister has achieved the impossible and made the government even more dysfunctional."
At a press conference, Mr Brown said he had asked the twice-resigned Mr Mandelson to return to cabinet "in the national interest" and suggested it was "incredible how big decisions about the economy" were reduced to questions about personalities.
But the personality of Mr Mandelson weighed heavily on the minds of Labour MPs opposed to his return.
Former minister Peter Kilfoyle said he regarded the recall of the "twice disgraced" Mr Mandelson as "a thoroughly retrograde step" which would do nothing to promote unity in the Labour Party.
"On the contrary," said Mr Kilfoyle, "the appointment is highly divisive, and he remains a highly divisive figure within the Labour movement."
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker also described Mr Mandelson's return as astonishing.
He said: "It seems no matter how many times he is wrapped up in chains and thrown to the bottom of the Volga, up he pops again."
Mr Mandelson had to leave the House of Commons to take up his post as EU commissioner in Brussels and is now expected to be appointed to the House of Lords.
"True to form, he is attempting to gain power again, this time without any accountability to the electorate," Mr Baker said. "As a member of the House of Lords he will not be subject to the usual scrutiny of the House of Commons at Question Time."