As first reported in the Times,external Lord Mandelson will succeed Dame Karen Pearce, whose term in Washington DC is due to end when President Trump enters the White House in early 2025.
British ambassadors are usually career diplomats or civil servants, but Downing Street said choosing a leading Labor politician “demonstrates the importance we place on our relationship with the Trump administration”. .
Labor and Health Secretary Stephen Kinnock said Lord Mandelson would make a “fantastic appointment” as US ambassador.
Mr Kinnock, whose father Neil Kinnock gave Lord Mandelson his first senior job in the Labor Party in the 1980s, pointed to the former EU trade commissioner’s “very rich experience in the trade field”.
“He has very good political connections in Washington, D.C., and I think his appointment reflects the importance of the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. Peter Mandelson is committed to taking that relationship forward. “I think he’s a very good person,” Kinnock added.
But Lord Mandelson has long been a polarizing figure in British politics.
He resigned as a minister twice. The first time he was accused of failing to declare a mortgage from a ministerial colleague, and the second time he was accused of using his position to influence his passport application.
An ardent critic of Brexit and supporter of global free trade, he clearly would not be a good fit for the incoming Trump administration.
But the former cabinet minister and EU trade negotiator has vast political experience, and Downing Street decided that sending someone so close to a big British politician might work well in the White House. Maybe.
