Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US has been thrown into doubt (Image: Getty)
team has “a lot of concern” about Peter Mandelson becoming the next ambassador to the US, has revealed.
The President-elect’s advisors are said to be alarmed by Lord Mandelson’s links to China and could even reject his nomination.
And those close to Mr Trump are furious Labour sent party officials to campaign for the Republican’s Democrat rival .
Reform UK leader Mr Farage, a close ally of , told the Daily Express: “We had the party on Friday night. There were a lot of people there who are going into the administration, a variety of posts, including the Cabinet.
Donald Trump will be sworn in on Monday (Image: Getty)
“There’s a lot of concern.
“If Mandelson really, really wants the job, he should stand up and say the Chagos deal is rubbish.”
Responding to concerns over Lord Mandelson’s links to China, Mr Farage added: “That’s going to be even more difficult.
“There is real concern here about him.
“No-one doubts that he is intelligent. No-one doubts he is clever at trade. He is.
“From the EU’s perspective, he was a good trade commissioner. He needs to demonstrate here that he is pivoting.”
Rejecting Lord Mandelson would be a huge blow to Sir as he seeks to build ties with President Trump.
The President-elect will be sworn in for a second term in the White House on Monday, with Lord Mandelson’s outgoing predecessor Dame Karen Pierce expected to attend on behalf of the Government.
Dame Karen will be the only representative of the UK Government in Washington.
Trump has invited several world leaders to the inauguration this year, including Chinese President , Argentinian President Javier Milei and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
And former Prime Ministers and Liz Truss, as well as and Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel set to attend the inauguration.
One source suggested Lord Mandelson’s nomination has made relations between the Trump team and the British Government “worse”.
They added: “It is quite possible that Mandelson’s credentials could still be rejected,” a source told The Independent. “There are serious concerns about his links to China.”
Lord Mandelson has been a strong advocate of close trading and other ties with China, even penning an article in 2018 warning that Mr Trump’s antipathy to China was “putting free trade at risk”.
A source told The Independent of the sense of betrayal: “Starmer, Lammy and Trump sat down for that dinner.
“They make a lot about Lammy being given a second helping by Trump but all that does not matter because Labour then sent out activists to help . Starmer had a terrible briefing saying Harris would win and his actions after undid any goodwill he may have had.”
Another source added: “Ideally, they would like Labour to pull the Mandelson appointment and keep Dame Karen Pierce in place, but they are worried that if Labour pulls Mandelson, Labour will appoint someone even worse like Kim Darroch, Sadiq Kahn, or some far worse person.”
At the end of last year the Government announced that Lord Mandelson, who served in the cabinets of Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, would become the UK’s top diplomat in Washington DC.
Sir said he was “delighted” to appoint Lord Mandelson and he will bring “unrivalled experience to the role”.
Number 10 defended Lord Mandelson’s appointment shortly after it was announced in December, after Chris LaCivita, an architect of the US president-elect’s 2024 campaign, called him an “absolute moron”.
Lord Mandelson had been critical of Mr Trump in the past.
Treasury minister Darren Jones told the ’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “For the first time in, I think, maybe 50 years… a British Prime Minister has picked a politician to be the ambassador in DC.
“We have brilliant diplomats and Karen Pierce has done a brilliant job, but the reason the Prime Minister picked Peter Mandelson was because we want to do things differently.
“We recognise the important relationship between our two countries. There are lots of opportunities there on trade and the way in which our countries collaborate, whether it’s on technology, or on finance or on defence and security issues.
“I think Peter Mandelson will be a brilliant ambassador for us and will form a very strong partnership with the new administration.”
Asked whether he was “confident” that Trump’s administration will accept the nomination, Mr Jones replied: “Yes”.