Mandelson: a weekend to thrash out a deal

(UPDATED: now contains video.) Bumped into Peter Mandelson who has spent much of the night cooing at the Liberal Democrats “we’re the only ones that love you” (I paraphrase).

I asked him how long he thought Labour had to explore the possibilities of hanging on – he said a weekend felt about right, based on the precedent of February 1974 (he didn’t mention that most people, including many of Heath’s closest allies, felt that weekend was a massive own goal making him look like a bad loser who didn’t get the voters’ message).

I asked him: surely it could all end a bit quicker than that if, when we get the final figures, Labour MPs + the Lib Dem MPs don’t make a majority in the Commons (as looks very likely under current projections).

He seemed to agree and said in that circumstance the Tories would go into power as a minority government. You can see the interview below.