Lord Mandelson delivers rabble-rousing conference speech

Sep 29 2009 by William Green, The Journal

LORD Mandelson yesterday delivered a rabble-rousing speech to conference and declared the election was “up for grabs”.

The peer’s first conference appearance since returning to the Government last year won him a standing ovation and an appreciative slap on the back from a beaming Prime Minister.

Today Mr Brown will deliver his conference speech hoping to turn around Labour’s chances and shore up his own position.

But it was not all smiles for Labour in Brighton after leading left-winger Alan Simpson branded Mr Brown a “dead man walking”.

The Nottingham South MP said Downing Street had a “last days of Hitler bunker mentality” and the Prime Minister had until Christmas to improve.

Labour sought to put questions about the Prime Minister’s health behind them with Lord Mandelson dismissing rumours about his supposed use of prescription pills as coming from “extreme right-wingers” in the blogosphere.

Mandelson and Chancellor Alistair Darling turned their fire on the Conservatives, warning that voters faced a “big choice” in the election expected next spring between a Tory party which would “relish” slashing public spending and Labour which would protect frontline services. And both hailed the role of Mr Brown in leading the international response to the recession.

The choice facing voters was between the “experience and change” of Mr Brown or “the shallowness of David Cameron”, said Lord Mandelson, who branded the Tory leader a “flibbertigibbet”.

Urging activists to “think like insurgents, not incumbents”, Lord Mandelson insisted: “This election is up for grabs.