HOW MANDELSON SECRETLY LOBBIED TO THWART BREXIT

LORD Mandelson started plotting to thwart Brexit weeks after the vote despite publicly claiming to respect the result, a letter reveals.

In the aftermath of the 2016 referendum, the Labour peer said the public’s decision to leave should be respected. But the letter he sent to Business Secretary Greg Clark shows he began efforts to change the result less than a month later.

In the note, sent on July 21, 2016, Lord Mandelson claimed it was in the national interest to ‘modify or qualify’ the decision to leave the EU. He congratulated Mr Clark on his appointment to the Cabinet post, but warned: ‘The economic consequences of Brexit will fall squarely into your lap.’

And he said it was essential for Britain to stay in the single market, adding that the vote ‘dealt a hammer blow’ to its economic strategy.

He wrote: ‘The national interest now dictates that we should modify or qualify the decision of the referendum if we can but if not make it work as best we can for the UK economy as a whole.’

Lord Mandelson did not answer a request for comment.