Peter Mandelson opens up over Gordon Brown in new documentary

Published on Saturday 16 October 2010 09:08

LORD Mandelson has revealed his candid private opinions of Gordon Brown in a fly-on-the-wall documentary.

Labour's general election supremo allowed film-maker Hannah Rothschild to follow him throughout the campaign for the programme, to be broadcast by the BBC next month.

Excerpts released yesterday show Mandelson musing over the need to allow Brown to appear "normal and human" when meeting voters, and voicing exasperation about the then prime minister's apparent inability to keep his tie straight.

The extracts also show Downing Street staffer Patrick Diamond confiding to Mandelson his worries about a 3.8 billion "black hole" in government spending plans for social care. They also show Mandelson engaging in waspish banter with George Osborne when he bumped into the then shadow chancellor in the "spin room" during one of the televised leaders' debates.

Rothschild accompanied the then business secretary from October 2009 to June this year for the observational documentary entitled The Real PM, to be broadcast on BBC4's Storyville strand.

Discussing Brown's character, Mandelson said: "He is like a cross between a snow-plough and a combine harvester. He just drives through, and that is how you have to be in politics.

"He is a one-off, Gordon. He is not like anyone you have ever met. Perhaps that's the public's problem with Gordon. They can't put him in a category, they can't put him in a likeness, they can't think of who he reminds them of."

Joking about the difficulty of ensuring Brown is smartly presented, he added: "I would settle for the tie being straight. I would give up on the hair, as long as the tie is centred. I just can't understand why he can't tie a tie like anyone else."

Discussing the PM's public appearances with Labour campaign strategists, Mandelson said: "He can be as brainy as he likes, but what I also want him to be is sufficiently relaxed and approachable that people can conclude that he is - as well as everything else - a human being."