If anyone can secure a US trade deal, it's Mandelson

Peter Mandelson has more lives than a cat.

- JOHN RENTOUL

Sacked twice as a cabinet minister by Tony Blair, he then had a third career as a European trade commissioner. His fourth incarnation was the most surprising, when he was brought back into government as business secretary by his arch-enemy Gordon Brown.

Brown made him a minister via the House of Lords, elevating the “Prince of Darkness”, a nickname earned in his early role as New Labour spin doctor, to the “Lord of Darkness”. Eight months later, he was made first secretary of state as well, and was in effect Brown’s deputy prime minister, until the end of that government 14 years ago.

Now, at the age of 70, he is on the edge of a fifth big job. He is said to have made a “credible pitch” to be the British ambassador to Washington, according to The Daily Telegraph. My sources are not denying it, although they point out that he is also in the running to be chancellor of the University of Oxford, to replace Chris Patten.

Neither job is assured. The Oxford post depends on a vote – to be held online for the first time – of the university’s 250,000 graduates. That vote will be held at the end of October or start of November, which is when the US presidential election will be.