Lord Mandelson ruled by 'bullying ethos' with a history of media manipulation, veteran journalist says

On Sunday he resigned from the Labour Party to prevent "further embarassment" for his colleagues, and announced he would step down from the Lords on Tuesday.

But chairman of The Spectator Lord Moore claimed Lord Mandelson would deploy a political tactic to achieve his means, rooted deep in the heart of New Labour's methodology to snatch power.

"Of course, [bullying] is intimately involved with New Labour," he told Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The editor added: "I can understand why New Labour did have a bullying approach, because they were determined to get on top of the problems they'd always have had with the media.

"They did organise it in a much more professional way than Labour ever had in the past.

"And they therefore wanted to control the agenda.

"While I didn't necessarily like that, and particularly with some of what was on the agenda, I understood that.

"And also to be fair to Mandelson, though he was very manipulative, he was also helpful to the media in the sense that he did want to explain things.

"He's always been someone who is, we would see, as journalists, as a good contact because for whatever often Machiavellian reason, he quite often wants to talk to you and engage with the whole subject."

Lord Moore added the "set-up" between Lord Mandelson, Sir Tony Blair and his spin doctor Alastair Campbell would have been "effective from their perspective".

He continued: "But it also produced a tendency to ignore Parliament and treat politics as a carefully controlled media entity, and disrespect Parliament.

"And I think that's where we are now," he concluded, adding the difference between then and now is that they used to be far more effective in achieving their goal.

But Lord Moore argued this "bullying ethos" has leaked into the way the Assisted Suicide Bill was being dragged through Parliament, despite growing backlash over its construction in the chambers.

"What's also the case is Labour has an underlying sympathy for it, which means it is not a level-playing field," he explained.

"And also that there's a very strong and well-funded assisted suicide lobby, which is always pushing for this.

"It keeps on bringing up these bills. And while, of course I agree that this is a very important issue which needs to be heard.

"There's something strange about the way bill after bill after bill comes up over the years about this.

"And they're almost polemical in their construction, and they never seemed to be properly grounded in law and in all the ramifications. But they keep coming back and and Labour is susceptible to this.

"So I feel that it's pressure group power more than it is proper legislative discussion."

Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter