Peter Mandelson's back...

Here's something I just read in The Mail, unsurprisingly there is nothing on the BBC about it. Apparently:

Peter "Mandelson is under attack over a deal that could see some production at Vauxhall moved to a Russian firm controlled by one of his close friends.

Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch, is a key mover behind the rescue of the car manufacturer, which employs 5,500 in the UK.

Under a deal hammered out over the weekend, some car production could shift to Mr Deripaska's car maker GAZ in low-cost Russia.

That could threaten thousands of jobs at Vauxhall plants in Luton and at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

General Motors, which owns Vauxhall, will this morning file for bankruptcy protection, making it one of the biggest corporate failures in U.S. history.

GAZ has teamed up with Canadian car parts giant Magna and Russian bank Sberbank to buy Vauxhall and its German sister firm Opel, the European arm of General Motors.

Lord Mandelson is facing accusations of manufacturing a deal to favour Mr Deripaska.

Their relationship sparked controversy last year after it emerged that the Business Secretary - then a EU Commissioner - stayed on the billionaire's £80million yacht anchored off Corfu.

It was later claimed that Lord Mandelson signed off on valuable trade concessions to the Russian tycoon - a charge both men have denied.

He faced criticism recently for giving van maker LDV - controlled by Mr Deripaska - a £5million handout to smooth its rescue by Malaysian firm Westar. "

The Mail goes onto report the worries of Conservative and LibDem spokesmen:

"Last night, Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott said: 'The Business Secretary clearly has a conflict of interest given his past contact with Oleg Deripaska. He must steer well clear of any deals on Vauxhall with Mr Deripaska lurking in the shadows.'

A Tory frontbencher said there was an 'air of suspicion' over the deal because of Lord Mandelson's links to Mr Deripaska. "

And on the BBC not a word. In fact until I read that piece in The Mail I had no idea that Mr Deripaska was involved in any way with the Vauxhall deal, I suppose it is my own fault for relying on the BBC for unbiased news.

I am labelling this post "BBC bias and BBC/NuLab but I suppose it is feasible that the BBC like much of the media is in fact not biased towards Peter Mandelson but scared of him. If ever a man had "something of the night" about him, it is Peter Mandelson and not Michael Howard.