Peter Mandelson: the next prime minister?

The odds on the twice-disgraced business secretary becoming the next leader of the Labour party are shortening by the week.

Even Peter Mandelson has described it as "a comeback too many". But the odds on the twice-disgraced business secretary becoming the next leader of the Labour party are shortening by the week. At Christmas, you could put a tenner down at 200/1, says Mike Smithson on Politicalbetting.com. Today, Paddy Power is offering odds of 16/1. So just how good are his chances?

Quite good, according to some. By changing the rules, so that life peers can quit the upper house and run for parliament, Jack Straw has already "decided to let the leopard out of its cage", argues William Rees Mogg in The Times. But "the leopard has not changed its spots; if released, it will seek its prey, which is power". And Mandelson already wields quite a lot of it.

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