Juliet Rieden

So Peter Mandelson or Lord Peter Mandelson, I should say, because he is in Britain's House of Lords, although he has left that position recently.

He no longer sits in the House of Lords.

He has had a long and very checkered history with the Labour Party in the UK.

He's an incredibly powerful politician.

He started working for Labour back in the 1980s, a long time ago, and he has been a central figure in that party.

He played a key role in the new Labour movement.

Now, this is the movement that brought Sir Tony Blair to win a landslide election victory in 1997.

Mandelson is often described as the kingmaker where Tony Blair was concerned.

He was Blair's spin doctor and he was called in critiques of him the Prince of Darkness because he sort of dealt in these very dark and nefarious ways, but managed to lift Tony Blair up.

to win that landslide election.

He was actually the MP for Hartlepool in the beginning.

That's in the north of England.

And he held a number of ministerial roles with Labour.

But twice he was forced to resign.

His first resignation, that was in 1998.

It was about a secret loan that he'd had from a ministerial colleague.

And then just a year after that,

He was backing government.

He was Northern Ireland secretary.

And again, he was forced to quit in 2001 over allegations of misconduct.