Lucy Powell says Labour has ‘no magic bullet’ as MPs brace for heavy losses in local elections

“There’s a huge amount of anger, sort of despondency, I think. Every day that we’re still on the fallout from the Mandelson appointment is a day we’re not talking to our communities and our voters about what all our MPs and councillors want us to be talking about,” she said.

Powell said she had always distrusted the former US ambassador, who was sacked after new revelations about his friendship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “I don’t like the way he operates, it’s always all about Peter, and I don’t trust his judgment either. That’s a view I’ve long held. Not everybody held that view. He’s not someone I would have even countenanced personally, but, that’s mine and his history,” she said.

But she said she believed that No 10 was now a different operation, with the departure of several influential aides who had been key to appointing Mandelson.

“Prime ministers do make hundreds of decisions. And they don’t get them all right. This one Keir got wrong … It does speak to an era, some people call it ‘the boys club’, but a culture there in Downing Street, in our politics.

“There has been quite a big move away from that and a recognition that the government was needing more differing views and opinions. Even in exactly the same circumstances. I don’t think that same decision would be made now.”

Starmer is thought to have rejected the idea of a wider reshuffle after the May elections as a way of trying to cement his position by bringing back soft left figures such as Powell and the former deputy leader, Angela Rayner, back to the full cabinet.

But Powell said she preferred her role to be solely political. “I’m personally quite sceptical about reshuffles as a device. We need to be governing for the whole country. We need to be governing as one Labour party, bringing together all the different groups and factions in the Labour party,” she said.

“But we also need to have a much stronger sense of politics*.* I’ve chosen to do this job entirely politically. I think I’ve made actually more impact doing it that way.”

Powell said that she believed the party could do better than the polls were predicting – and that Mandelson was not the major issue on the doorsteps, but whether Labour could really deliver change.

“I think we have the best ground campaign by a mile in this country. There’s a lot at stake. I’m not really in the expectation management business. But what I think people find is that on the actual doorsteps, there are different conversations to be had.

“There’s a lot of voters still quite unsure, especially in more Green-facing areas. I think it’s very soft. All our amazing members and activists – they’re very motivated to have those conversations.”