Platform: Peter Mandelson as Prime Minister? Now that would be a farce

Published on Friday 14 August 2009 22:05

PETER Mandelson for Prime Minister? Surely a peer could not become the Queen's first minister in the early 21st century, doubters cry. But although the Business Secretary has ruled himself out (using typically Delphic language), stranger things have happened and, in this case, have also happened before.

The scenario goes something like this: new laws are enacted which would enable life peers to quit the Lords and stand for election to the Commons; next, an obliging MP in safe Labour territory agrees to stand aside, enabling a Mandelson candidacy. Mandy then triumphantly returns to the green benches, where he could challenge Brown for the premiership.

There is, of course, nothing preventing Lord Mandelson becoming Prime Minister while remaining in the Upper House. Lord Salisbury was the last to do so, although the orthodoxy since has dictated that the leader of a UK government has to have a seat in the Commons.

Hereditary peers have been able to "renounce" their titles since 1963, and indeed to stand for the Commons (Viscount Thurso, for example, is the sitting MP for Caithness and Sutherland) since most were removed from the Lords a decade ago.

However, life peers, such as Lord Mandelson, do not enjoy the same option.

Not, perhaps, for much longer. Justice Secretary Jack Straw's Constitutional Renewal Bill could soon become law, allowing – among other reforms – life peers to quit the House of Lords. Indeed, when this particular provision was revealed, it ignited immediate speculation that Mandelson would be the first life peer to take advantage. Interestingly, he has not commented on his plans should the law in this respect change.

"History repeats itself," said Karl Marx, "first as tragedy, second as farce." The tragedy in this context was the brief premiership of the 14th Earl of Home back in 1963. Harold Macmillan had just resigned, and having emerged as the grass-roots favourite at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool, Home was invited by the Queen to form a government.

Judging that he could not credibly form an administration as a peer, Home used the recently passed Peerage Act (a result of Tony Benn's campaign to renounce his peerage) to disclaim his earldom and other peerages on 23 October. The hunt for a Commons vacancy had already begun, but, remarkably, for the next two weeks the Prime Minister – now plain Sir Alec Douglas-Home – belonged to neither House of Parliament.

The sights of Conservative Central Office soon rested upon the constituency of Kinross & West Perthshire, where the sitting member had recently died and a by-election campaign was already under way. However, the Tory candidate, the future Scottish and defence secretary George Younger, was not keen to sacrifice a safe seat.

But at a crunch meeting of senior Scottish Unionists, Sir John George bluntly declared: "George, you'll do your duty for your country and your party."

Younger obliged and Home was duly adopted as candidate, winning the by-election on 7 November, 1963. Less than a year later, however, he lost to the Labour leader, Harold Wilson, in a general election. To return to Marx's aphorism, a similar scenario involving Peter Mandelson would surely be a farce.

In politics, particularly in the flexible context of the UK constitution, there is rarely anything new under the sun, but the days of politicians jumping from one House of Parliament to another for political gain belong in 1963, rather than in the dying days of a Labour government in the early 21st century.