The Lord Speaker has announced that Peter Mandelson will resign from the House of Lords effective tomorrow:
“Given the public interest and for the convenience of the House, I’ve decided to inform the House that the clerk of the Parliaments has today received notification from Lord Mandelson of his intention to retire from the House, effective from February 4. I will formally notify this to the house tomorrow in the usual way.”
He will nonetheless retain his title for life, unless the government introduces primary legislation to revoke it. Earlier today the No10 spokesman said the government would move ‘at pace’ to introduce legislation to boot him…
UPDATE: Downing Street:
“It is right that Peter Mandelson will no longer be a member of the House of Lords. As the Prime Minister said this morning, Peter Mandelson let his country down.”
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns told Times Radio she would have put a precondition on a China trip if she were PM:
“I would have put a precondition that I was not going to go if I was prime minister, unless Jimmy Lai was coming home with me. I would also put a precondition in the six months leading up to the visit that I wanted a reduction in hostile acts against our country. But that’s not what we saw. And actually, in contrast, what we saw was clearly the Chinese Communist Party did put a precondition, which was that the new embassy in London had to be signed off. So why is it okay for China to set preconditions and to make very clear red lines about what they require for a visit, but we go without having put any ourselves?”