Life peerage is a life sentence, business secretary says, and would stop him returning to Commons Lord Mandelson taking his seat in the House of Lords last year. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Lord Mandelson today unequivocally ruled himself out as a future prime minister or Labour leader. In an interview, the business secretary said that he was "officially" declaring that he would not be a candidate. He was more definite than he has been in previous interviews, in which he has generally dismissed the prospect of taking over from Gordon Brown without explicitly ruling it out. The prospect of Mandelson becoming prime minister or Labour leader has always been far-fetched, largely because Britain has not had a peer as prime minister since Lord Salisbury, who left office in 1902. But that has not quashed speculation about Mandelson either replacing Brown before the election, or taking over the leadership of the Labour party after an election defeat. This speculation has been fuelled by a provision in the constitutional renewal bill that would allow Mandelson to leave the Lords and return to the Commons. Under current rules life peers such as Mandelson cannot give up their peerages. Today, in an interview with Sky News, Mandelson said: "I have no prospect and no plans of standing as leader of the Labour party. I am a member of the House of Lords. There is no opportunity for me to divest myself of my life peerage. "A peerage is for life. A life peerage is a life peerage." Asked whether he was ruling himself out of any future contest, he said: "It is me officially ruling it out." He also described being a life peer as "like a life sentence". In an interview last month on BBC2's Newsnight, Mandelson said becoming prime minister "might be a comeback too many". But he did not rule it out explicitly. In his interview today Mandelson also repeated his claim that the prime minister would "relish" a US-style televised debate with David Cameron. When Mandelson first raised the possibility last month, Downing Street said Brown would "never be afraid" to engage with the Tory leader on policy issues but, outside of an election campaign, that was done in the forum of Commons question time. That appeared to leave open the possibility of a TV debate once campaigning gets under way. Mandelson told Sky: "There is no doubt in my mind that Gordon Brown would relish the debate."Mandelson rules out becoming prime minister
Friday, 14 August 2009
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