The assassination took place over a light lunch of salmon hollandaise in the Quod restaurant in London’s Haymarket. Now the lunch has claimed another casualty.

Peter Mandelson was the guest of the women’s lobby journalists’ lunch group. As Stephen Byers, the former Trade and Industry Secretary, found, the gathering should never be underestimated. Byers was indiscreet about the euro when he was a guest and a huge row broke out.

The women chose the venue well. Quod, according to Time Out, is popular for office parties, hen nights, and “noisy beyond belief”.

Not too noisy for the women to hear Mandelson warm to his theme, as the Pinot Grigio flowed, that if the Prime Minister had only been as “politically obsessed” as the Chancellor, “24 hours a day, seven days a week”, he would have won the argument for a euro referendum. As ever, the guest’s comments at the £40-a-head lunch were off the record but with such a large group — 18 were present — there is always the risk of a leak.

By 5.10pm on Tuesday a story appeared on the Press Association wires by Jane Merrick, who was at the lunch, which quoted a former minister and close political ally of Tony Blair describing the Chancellor as too “politically obsessed”. It was clearly the high priest of spin.

Within seconds a virtually identical story appeared on the PA wire naming Mandelson as the source of the quotes. The row was immediate, explosive, and continues to rumble. Mandelson, who spent years manipulating journalists as Director of Communications for the Labour Party, complained. But it was too late. The damage was done.

A reluctant Merrick had been told by Jon Smith, her political editor, to identify Mandelson. As the Parliamentary Press Gallery last night celebrated its 200th anniversary, PA was banned from women’s lobby lunches.

THE longest continuous run in sponsorship is to come to an end. ChevronTexaco is dropping its support for the Metropolitan Opera in New York’s Saturday radio broadcasts after next season, in another sign of the troubled times for classical music in the United States.

The Met’s Saturday afternoon concerts have been a staple on classical music stations since 1931. The broadcasts have introduced millions of people around the world to opera.

Tony Blair forgives and forgets

What a difference a war makes. In 1995 Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP, was swiftly sacked by Tony Blair from the frontbench for being on the Iraqi border monitoring the Turkish Army’s incursion against Kurdish guerrillas. She was supposed to be at Westminster.

In 1988 Clwyd was sacked by Neil Kinnock for rebelling over defence estimates. In 1997 she joined the first revolt of the Blair Government on cuts in lone-parent benefit.

But Clwyd has been rewarded for her staunch support of the Iraq war. Next week she flies to Baghdad as Blair’s personal “humanitarian” ambassador.

She has just returned from meeting Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Defence Secretary, and Donald Rumsfeld, the hawkish Defence Secretary, both hate-figures for many Labour MPs. They invited her after Wolfowitz read her column in The Times in which she passionately defended the war on humanitarian grounds. Clwyd is less concerned about whether coalition forces find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which is why the Prime Minister is so grateful for her support. The firebrand leftwinger is glad to be back. But for how long this time?

Clooney shows a lot of bottle

George Clooney, described in a recent poll as the person most Welsh people would like to stand in a queue with, has vowed never to shop in a supermarket again after an embarrassing incident involving a bottle of hair dye.

Clooney was mortified to find himself at the centre of attention at the checkout queue with his sole purchase — hair dye. “People were cracking up,” one onlooker said. “A woman shouted to George, telling him he didn’t need it, he was gorgeous anyway.”

Of course, the big-hearted actor-turned-director has an entirely plausible explanation: the hair dye was not for him. Oh no. Tommy Hinckley, a pal, said: “George was buying the product for a friend — though he appreciated the joke.” Bet he did.

PS

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