Westminster blog

This is the explosive news this morning. Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, will return to government as business secretary.

It’s a shocker because of a] Mandelson’s “Blairite” status and b] the animosity – which may or may not be historic – between him and Gordon Brown.

He is also a controversial figure in UK politics, having resigned twice under Tony Blair. Here is the background.

Mandelson’s failure in 1998 to disclose a secret £373,000 loan from Geoffrey Robinson, a fellow minister, was seen as a serious misjudgment.  That was the first resignation.

The second was more ambiguous. He admitted making misleading statements over the passport application of Srichand Hinduja, an Indian billionaire, but denied any wrongdoing.

Since then, however, Mandelson has proved his numerous qualities in the Brussels job.

Brown will no doubt hope that this shows that he can rise above personal animosities. But the Westminster village will now be on tenterhooks to watch the first cracks appear in this new relationship.

UPDATE

I’m wondering whether the DBERR job will be anything like as interesting now that energy is being filleted into a new “energy and climate change” department under Ed Miliband. This means Mandelson won’t be fully involved in some of the most topical issues of the day; nuclear, renewable energies and the rapidly rising cost of electricity and gas.