New Labour’s enemies on the left have often accused the Blairites of being ‘red Tories’: figures like like Peter Mandelson disputed this accusation, and yet we now know he advised Keir Starmer to take advice from John Major.

Mandelson, w e’ve heard this Tory before

The latest revelation emerged in the new release of messages from Mandelson’s time in government. The reason the government is releasing his correspondence is another email tranche – specifically that which the US released in relation to the dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

As it turned out, Mandelson was bosom buddies with Epstein, and he was secretly talking to him about British state secrets. We say ‘as it turns out’, but we did warn the government Mandelson was friends with Epstein before Starmer made him the ambassador to the US.

The latest release of messages contains the following exchange between Mandelson and Starmer. As you can see, it took place not long after Starmer became PM:

[17/07/2024, 21:41] Peter Mandelson: Keir, hope you are well, you have got off to a flying start. I was at a dinner with John Major this evening and if you don’t know him I think good idea to invite him for a chat. As well as being a very nice person, he is interesting and thoughtful. Just a thought. No need to reply.

[25/07/2024, 13:25] Keir Starmer: Thanks Peter. Its so good to be getting on with the job of governing. A million times better than opposition – you know that! I’ll reach out to John M, he’s a very thoughtful man. See you soon I hope.

Who could have guessed that Starmer was taking his cues from a Tory ex-prime minister?

The wrong track

As you may or may not know, Starmer recently re-nationalised the railways. Major was the one to privatise them, and as Tom Nicholas recently covered, this ended up being a long and winding disaster:

Before you think we’re praising Starmer, there’s something else to point out. Namely, that Starmer performed a typical half measure by failing to renationalise the companies which own the actual trains. As James Wright wrote for the Canary:

the party will not nationalise the rolling stock companies – Eversholt, Porterbrook, and Angel Trains. These companies own the majority of the trains that we rent. That’s despite the company shareholders making over £2bn in the past decade in dividends.

So basically, Conservative prime minister John Major sold off the trains when he privatised the railways in 1993. Now we rent them back at higher costs and still will under Labour’s plans.

So yeah – consider us unsurprised to learn that Mandelson, Starmer, and Major may have been chatting it up behind closed doors.

Featured image via Carl Court (Getty Images) / Dimitrios Kambouris (Getty Images) / Carl Court (Getty Images)

By Willem Moore

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