His full designation will be Baron Mandelson of Foy in the county of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the county of Durham.

But the new Business Secretary, who takes his seat in the Upper House today, wants to be known as “plain Lord Mandelson”. There being no other Mandelsons in the House, he can be known as just that.

People preparing for their elevation to the Lords are asked by the House’s authorities for “geographical designations”. Lord Mandelson has opted for two: Hartlepool, his old constituency and Foy, a hamlet in the Welsh borders where he once owned a cottage.

The briefer title is the one that will be used, it appears. The Business Secretary told The Times last night: “I have decided to be plain Lord Mandelson. Foy and Hartlepool are places in which I lived. But that is not the title. The only one to be used for formal or informal occasions is Lord Mandelson.”

The ceremony of introduction is less complicated than it was, yet it will offer plenty to aficionados of protocol. In a procession led by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod and the Garter Principal King of Arms, Peter Mandelson, wearing a parliamentary robe and sandwiched between two peers, will proceed to the Table of the House. A clerk will read the Letters Patent, used by the Queen to create a peerage, and administer the oath of allegiance.

Lord Mandelson and his supporters will bow towards the Cloth of Estate, and proceed out of the chamber, shaking hands with the Lords Speaker.

Having left the European Commission to rejoin the Cabinet, he will, under EU rules, be eligible for about £78,000 in three annual “transitionary payments”. The top-up ensures that his income in his new job is the same as his £182,500 salary as a commissioner. When he is 65, his pension will start at £31,000 and rise with the cost of living.

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