Labour holds its breath for the Dark Lord’s memoir

Peter Mandelson’s memoirs are out in just over a week. Despite being one of the last off the stage, Mandelson has beaten his colleagues to the first full account of the Blair Brown era. Tony Blair’s ‘The Journey’ is not out until September. Indeed, some Blair allies think that Mandelson should have had the good manners to let the former Prime Minister publish first.

There’ll be some people who dismiss any Mandelson book as old news. But from what I’m hearing these memoirs could be more interesting than people are expecting. Apparently, many of Mandelson’s political friends have not heard from him recently and fear they could be painfully frank.

The media will be looking to see what Mandelson says about Blair and Brown. But also look out for his comments on the Labour leadership contenders. Seeing as the book reportedly goes all the way up to the last election, it is bound to have plenty to say about the Milibands and Ed Balls.