Politician of the Year (J)

WINNER Lord Mandelson

Lord Mandelson has returned to domestic politics in the past year - to the surprise of many and the consternation of a few.

Mandelson’s reappointment to the Cabinet last October was a personal triumph, a second comeback for a politician written off after two enforced resignations. It was all the more surprising as he was brought back into Government by his erstwhile rival, Gordon Brown.

It was a game-changing moment for the Labour Party, which - momentarily - derailed the Conservative advance on Number 10 and put Labour back into contention by removing Gordon Brown’s reputation for lack of decisiveness and boldness.

Mandelson’s return appeared to quash the perennial infighting between Blairites and Brownites that has plagued Labour and came to a head with the resignations of junior members of the Government just before the 2008 Party Conference. It is now impossible for ultra-Blairites to criticise Brown when one of his closest advisers is the Blairite sans-pareil Mandelson, the ‘Bobby’ that Blair himself thanked for his 1994 leadership victory; and of whom he later said: “My project will be complete when the Labour Party learns to love Peter.”

Back at BERR, Mandelson has thrown himself into combating the effects of the recession. He has transformed a previous declining power in Whitehall into an interventionist department at the heart of the Government’s economic recovery strategy.

Mandelson has taken swift decisions to rescue ailing manufacturing companies, but linked these to requirements to contribute to the Government’s environmental policy priorities by converting to developing green products such as electric vehicles.

Mandelson has not been afraid to confront traditional Labour movement sacred cows such as public ownership of Royal Mail. Arguing that to stand any chance of winning a fourth term, Labour must be the “change-makers” in British politics, he has made a powerful case for private-sector investment in Royal Mail in order to fund the changes the business needs to make to survive.

Charles Walker MP

Backbench Conservative MP Charles Walker rocketed to recognition among the public affairs community during the 18-month Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) inquiry into lobbying.

Rapidly gaining a reputation for being a straight-talker who doesn’t mince his words, however controversial the issue, Walker seems to revel in putting senior figures ‘on the spot’.

His feisty input to all eight evidence sessions of the lobbying investigation will long live in the memory of the public affairs pros who closely followed proceedings. During the inquiry, PASC member Walker – who was elected as the Tory MP for Broxbourne in 2005 – spoke of his appreciation of the industry, but was sharply critical of bad practice.

But it was his rants that had inquiry-watchers on the edge of their seats, such was the precision of his tirades against anyone from “24-year-old PA officers” troubling him on the phone, to “lobbying firms who feel they have to justify their fees by turning up and putting things on their headed paper”. As the inquiry progressed Walker - a former communications man himself - frequently lamented its “lack of a smoking gun”, and was generally in favour of preserving self-regulation by lobbyists.

Many might not appreciate his hectoring style, but – from the first evidence session onwards – Walker came across as one of the committee’s cutest operators, delivering barb after barb of inspired commentary (frequently to the apparently reluctant amusement of both the witnesses and some of PASC’s rather gnarled Labour members).

The PASC inquiry into lobbying is now over, of course, but Walker regularly crops up on the famous Green Benches, largely delivering stinging criticism of people and institutions he perceives to have erred. In recent months he has been particularly vocal in criticism of the banking sector.

Tony Wayland Wright MP

The parliamentary inquiry into lobbying saw the public affairs community’s eyes turning en masse to the Labour member for Cannock Chase.

Wright – chairman of the public administration select committee (PASC) that undertook the inquiry – ran the sessions that he was able to attend with his usual fairness, but it was his committee’s conclusions that surprised the industry.

The report, published in January, prescribed a string of proposals that – if implemented – would affect everyone in public affairs. Wright’s committee concluded that ‘reform is necessary’, and called for an end to self-regulation. Among other proposals, PASC called for a ‘rigorous and effective’ single body to regulate lobbyists’ ethics, as well as a mandatory register of lobbyists.

PASC’s shock report was a blow to those in the industry – such as the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) – that have been fighting to maintain self-regulation, but came as a pleasant surprise to transparency campaigners calling for tougher rules on lobbyists, and a clampdown on the ‘revolving-door’ between government and the business world.

The consensus, in short, was that PASC’s lobbying report was well-researched and more radical than many feared (or hoped). As chairman, Wright should take great credit for filtering the disparate views of the committee members into such a coherent and prescriptive report.

Wright has been an MP since 1992 and announced last summer that, for health reasons, he would not stand again at the next general election. He has chaired PASC for a decade and has the respect of Parliamentarians of all parties.