Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall deny Peter Mandelson asked them to drop out

He may be out of power but Labour’s Prince of Darkness is still attempting to pull the strings. Today’s Daily Telegraph reports that Peter Mandelson suggested to Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall that they should drop out of the Labour leadership contest in order to have the whole thing called off. One source told the paper ‘Lord Mandelson and other Blairites were saying – this is a disgrace, let’s get this thing pulled. But it was not going to happen’.

On the Today programme, Yvette Cooper gave a guarded answer as to whether there had been any contact with Mandelson. Cooper denied she had spoken to him directly, but left some wiggle room if it emerges there had been contact with her campaign:

‘I’ve not discussed this with Peter Mandelson. I gather that there was some view that maybe the whole process should be stopped because so many people were joining at the last minute. I don’t think that’s right, I think it’s a good thing that people are joining the party and it’s a good thing that we have a leadership about out future and winning the next general election.’