BACK-bench Labour MPs are bracing themselves to tell the Prime Minister today that there should be no role for fallen Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson in the Government for the foreseeable future.
Mr Blair, who will make his first appearance in the House of Commons today since the turmoil sparked by Mr Mandelson's dramatic resignation before Christmas, will come under predictable pressure from the Tories, but there is an overwhelming feeling on his own benches that early rehabilitation for Mr Mandelson would be ''quite wrong''.
A senior and respected back bencher said last night that the Prime Minister ''needs to be told in unequivocal terms what the mood is''.
Downing Street was sticking to the line that there were ''no plans for an expanded role for Mr Mandelson'' and other sources close to the Prime Minister were adamant that Mr Mandelson was ''out of the loop''.
A spokesman said: ''The idea that we are sitting around in Downing Street discussing Peter Mandelson's future does not bear any resemblance to reality.''
Mr Blair will not attend the weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party today, but he will be at this afternoon's meeting of the parliamentary committee at which he is expected to hear in pretty bald terms that the party is ''pretty incensed'' that Mr Mandelson attended a meeting last week of the British and German governments.
Last night, the fears of a premature Mandelson comeback were fuelled after claims in an unauthorised biography of Mr Mandelson that he plotted to succeed the Prime Minister.
The former Minister's friends immediately dismissed the claims by Paul Routledge, who has already written reams of damaging material about Mr Mandelson.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Gordon Brown will be accused in the Commons today of demonstrating ''absentee government'' when the single currency was launched.
The Liberal Democrat attack is part of wider criticism being launched by the party over the Government's attitude to the euro and to Europe.
The Commons debate is expected to see the first dispatch box appearance for Mr Alan Milburn in his new role as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. The former Health Minister took up the post before Christmas, replacing Mr Stephen Byers who became Trade Secretary after Mr Mandelson quit.
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