Things aren’t looking too rosy for the UK’s new Ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson. He’s already on the back foot after calling Trump a “danger to the world”, being NFI’d to Trump’s inauguration along with suggestions that if Starmer pushed through the Chagos surrender deal, the US might block his appointment in retaliation. Latest reports Down Under aren’t doing the Prince of Darkness any favours in his hopes of being approved…
The Nightly reveals that a dossier compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, outlining Mandelson’s links to Beijing, has been handed to the FBI by US Senators. This dossier details Mandelson’s role as an adviser to the China-based global investment bank CICC—a connection he failed to declare in the House of Lords register. It also highlights a series of visits to China where Mandy met with top-ranking officials including a 2019 meeting with Zhou Yubo, then Secretary of the CPC Committee and Chairman of China Guoxin. Past ties that may appeal to Labour’s pro-China contingent, though less likely to sit well with the hawks in Trump’s camp…
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”