Lord Mandelson was one of the leading Labour attack dogs when it came to criticising News International, and owner Rupert Murdoch, over the alleged deal which saw The Sun give its support to the Conservative Party from September 2009 onwards.
In November, he told the Today Programme: “The Sun’s owner, News International, has made a decision for the newspaper to support the Conservative party. They have effectively formed a contract, over the head incidentally of the paper’s editor and their readers, in which they are bound to one another.
“What the Sun can do for the Conservatives before and during the election is one part of that contract. And presumably what the Conservatives can do for News International if they are elected is the other side of that bargain.”
But time is a great healer, it seems, and Mandelson has accepted what must have been a huge sum – probably running into six figures – to give News International-owned daily The Times the exclusive serialisation rights for his hotly anticipated memoirs.
Whatever The Times paid will have been worth it to entice reluctant readers to pay the entrance fee to get behind its new paywall. Read more of Mandelson’s memoirs here (paywall protected).
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