Tony Blair once famously claimed his task would only be complete once the party learned to love Peter Mandelson.

He shouldn't hold his breath.

Despite Mr Mandelson's extraordinary success in transforming Labour into the election-winning machine that decimated the Tories last year, he is still unloved.

It started when he was taken on by Neil Kinnock to transform Labour's old, red flag image.

Mr Mandelson took to the job with a will, dumping the red flag in favour of the red rose and giving the party a new, softer focus and a dramatically more professional media operation.

Peter Mandelson arrives at Downing Street

He swiftly earned the tag the "Prince of Darkness" for his Machiavellian ways in dealing with the media, which involves a mixture of intimidation and favouritism.

When John Smith became party leader he fell out of favour and out of the limelight.

But, after allegedly switching horses from Gordon Brown to Tony Blair in the leadership race after Mr Smith's death, he again became one of the most important men in the party.

Rival camps

It was his falling out with Mr Brown that helped encourage the belief that there are two separate and competing factions operating at the heart of the government - the Blairites and the Brownies.

After Labour's landslide election it was clear that the Hartlepool MP was going to win a high-profile job, and the prime minister effectively made him his hit-man in Whitehall.

As minister without portfolio, it was his brief to progress-chase the Blair project throughout every ministry.

He was later put in charge of the Millennium Dome and, for the first time, had to face MPs across the Commons despatch box, a role he is clearly less comfortable with.

His job arguably made him the second most powerful man in the government and, along with press spokesman Alastair Campbell, he is closer to the prime minister than any minister.

He has tried to play down his old image as the arch media manipulator but with little success, as his fingerprints are often detected on carefully-placed stories in national newspapers.

At the same time, he has managed to anger Cabinet colleagues who resent this relatively-inexperienced political operator wielding so much power.