Mandelson, Peter (Benjamin) (1953- )

British Labour politician, European Union (EU) commissioner for trade from 2004. He entered the House of Commons in 1992, representing Hartlepool. As minister without portfolio 1997-98, and secretary of state for trade and industry in 1998, he worked closely on the Millennium Dome project at Greenwich. He resigned in late 1998 after it emerged that he had borrowed £370,000 from his cabinet colleague Geoffrey Robinson, who also resigned as paymaster general. After reappointment as secretary of state for Northern Ireland in 1999, he resigned again in February 2001, accused of helping an Indian industrialist obtain British citizenship in 1998. He was cleared the following month. He stood down as MP for Hartlepool in 2004 in order to take up his EU appointment.

Before becoming an MP, he had been an influential figure within the Labour Party as director of campaigns and communications 1985-90. A close confidante of Prime Minister Blair and an expert at media management, Mandelson demonstrated his organizational talents in Labour's victory campaign in the 1997 general election.

Born in London, after graduating from Oxford he worked in the TUC's economic department 1977-78, served on Lambeth borough council 1979-82, was a television producer 1982-85, and an industrial consultant 1990-92.

His maternal grandfather was the well-known Labour politician, Herbert Morrison, who had served in the cabinets of Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee.