Business Secretary Peter Kyle has offered a glimpse into the political calculus that led to Peter Mandelson’s controversial appointment, revealing that his skills and his scandals were explicitly “weighed up” by Downing Street. This admission confirms the decision was a deliberate political risk rather than an oversight.
According to Kyle, the scales were heavily tilted by the “perilous state” of the UK-US relationship. On one side was Mandelson’s known association with Jeffrey Epstein, a significant negative. On the other was his “outstanding, singular talents” and deep experience, seen as a crucial positive. In the government’s judgment, the potential reward of a stabilized relationship with America outweighed the risk of a scandal.
This calculation was based on the assumption that the full extent of Mandelson’s Epstein-related baggage was already public knowledge. The government bet that it could weather the criticism of the known association because there were no further secrets to be revealed. This proved to be a catastrophic misjudgment.
The emergence of the “early release” emails added a massive, unforeseen weight to the negative side of the scale, making the initial calculation look naive and reckless. The affair has exposed the dangers of such political arithmetic when all variables are not, and perhaps cannot be, known.