Jonathan Freedland

He hasn't yet got to be the king on the world stage, really.

Until now, and the fact that people like us are saying it's gone pretty well, will represent a big moment for him in his own life story.

Thank you.

Good to be with you, Helen.

He looked sober and serious and for a while I thought he was getting through with the kind of command of the House and they were listening, hearing him out.

A turning point came actually in this moment when he said lots of people here, members, will find it incredible.

Because, of course, it opened up the door for them to indeed say they did find his account incredible and for there to be jeers.

And thereafter, it opened the door for a whole series of questions that were difficult, led by quite a good performance by leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, who just went in with more precision than she often has.

And so I think having started well, it went less well for him because there are quite a few questions there.

And at the centre of it is his own admission of grave misjudgment.

In a way, it's partly the faults that drew him.

I mean, it is partly that reputation for the black arts that has given Peter Mandelson what many in the public would think of as a negative reputation.

But inside politics, people still believed until really these latest revelations.

that he had an almost magical power.

He could understand politics and how it operated in a way that lesser mortals could not.

He himself perpetuated that reputation.

You know, you refer to me as a long-time Peter Mandelson watcher, and it is true.

The very first time I met him was weeks or months into the new Labour government of 1997.

He greeted me by saying, Behold the Prince of Darkness, about himself.

It was quite clear that he reveled