Twice he's had to resign from the Cabinet in disgrace, but Peter Mandelson just keeps bouncing back. Nick Morrison looks at the career of our most controversial politician - and what sort of life he can expect in Brussels.

'BEFORE this campaign started, it was said that I was facing political oblivion, my career in tatters, apparently never to be part of the political living again. Well, they underestimated Hartlepool and they underestimated me, because I'm a fighter and not a quitter."

Peter Mandelson could not have been plainer if he had picked up the microphone and launched into an a cappella I Will Survive. In the most electrifying image of the 2001 General Election, the arch political diva used his victory speech to tell us how he grew strong, and learned how to get along. To some, it was a show of defiance; to others it was bordering on the hysterical.

The MP for Hartlepool is not someone who inspires indifference. As the architect of New Labour, he has left a trail of slighted and bruised egos in his wake. As one of Tony Blair's chief lieutenants, he has been the target of envy and thwarted ambition. As a media manipulator without peer, he has been the object of fear and loathing in equal measure.

But history will remember him for more than bequeathing Labour its red rose. He is also the only politician to have resigned twice from the Cabinet within three years, on the second occasion leading to a three-year spell in the political wilderness, only brought to an end by yesterday's appointment as a European Commissioner.

Peter Benjamin Mandelson was born in 1953 with politics in his blood: his grandfather was former Labour Deputy Leader Herbert Morrison. In an early rebellion he joined the Young Communist League, then, after university, worked for the TUC before election to Lambeth Council in south London, and then a job as a producer for London Weekend Television from 1982-85.

But it was his appointment as Labour's director of communications in 1985 which earned him accolades as a master of spin, and the soubriquet Prince of Darkness.

Aged 32, he set about transforming a party which had traditionally scorned the art of presentation. He gave Labour its red rose symbol, helping to soften the image of a party previously better known for its vicious infighting, and is credited with devising the "Kinnock - the Movie" election broadcast in 1987, featuring the Labour leader striding along the Welsh cliff-tops with wife Glenys.

Although his reputation was as a backroom fixer, he yearned to come out of the shadows, and in 1990 was selected to fight the safe seat of Hartlepool, which he duly won two years later. But his arrival on the frontline coincided with a period out of favour, when he was frozen out by new Labour leader John Smith, suspicious of the new MP's methods.

Mr Smith's sudden death in 1994 set the stage for what was to be one of the pivotal moments in Mr Mandelson's career.

A close friend and supporter of Gordon Brown, he nevertheless backed Tony Blair for the leadership, believing him to be more acceptable to voters in the south. Mr Blair duly won, and was eternally grateful. Mr Brown didn't stand, and is said to have never forgiven Mr Mandelson for what he saw as an act of betrayal.

As the new leader's most loyal of lieutenants, he rededicated himself to making Labour electable, ditching unpopular policies and ruthlessly pursuing middle England. As the man said to have been New Labour even before Mr Blair, he attracted the enmity of both those who believed their party had been hijacked, and those who saw their careers falter, but he was also a useful lightning rod for criticism of the leader.

In acknowledgement of this debt, Tony Blair once said his project to modernise Labour "will not be complete until the Labour Party learns to love Peter Mandelson".

The Prime Minister is still waiting for that, but rewarded his closest ally by making him Minister Without Portfolio after the 1997 victory, putting him in charge of the Millennium Dome. Mr Mandelson promised it would "blow your socks off", and was particularly enthusiastic about the games of surfball which would be held in the Dome. It soon emerged the game did not exist.

But he managed to get out before the full extent of the Dome debacle became apparent, and was promoted to Trade Secretary in the first reshuffle.

He had been in the post barely six months when he was forced to resign after a newspaper revealed he had bought his Notting Hill home with the help of a loan from a fellow minister. He may have fallen from grace but he escaped prosecution for providing false information on his mortgage application, to the annoyance of his growing number of enemies.

His resignation, in December 1998, came just two months after he was outed live on Newsnight. Although he was first outed 11 years previously, he has remained extremely defensive over his private life, and his apparent fury prompted the BBC to ban any mention of his homosexuality.

His spell on the backbenches lasted less than a year, when the culmination of a whispering campaign against Mo Mowlam saw him replace the Redcar MP as Northern Ireland Secretary in October 1999. He had some success in bringing the feuding factions together, but his second Cabinet stint was to last just a few months longer than the first.

In January 2001 he was again forced to resign after it emerged he tried to cover up his lobbying on behalf of the Hinduja brothers, Dome supporters who were in search of British passports. Once again, it seemed the man who was so clear-sighted when it came to others, was myopic when it came to his own behaviour.

It may have been a spectacular fall, but it also sowed the seeds for his return. Mr Mandelson claims he was exonerated by a report into the affair, and is said to believe the Prime Minister acted too hastily in demanding his resignation. For his part, Mr Blair is said to feel guilty for being over-zealous and has been waiting for an opportunity to make amends.

This came with the post of European Commissioner, one of 25, one for each country in the enlarged EU, with a salary of £145,000 a year, generous allowances for accommodation, chauffeurs and a housekeeper, a hefty pension and even a "transitional allowance" of half his salary for three years after leaving the post, to cushion the blow of a departure from domestic politics.

The appointment is being seen as a sign of the Prime Minister's strength, made in the teeth of opposition from Gordon Brown and Jack Straw, among others, and is Mr Blair's own show of defiance, an "I'm in charge" after a year of bad headlines.

But even his elevation to the ranks of the Commission, following in the footsteps of Roy Jenkins, Leon Brittan, Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten, was accompanied by a typical Mandelsonian touch.

Stories "emerged" at the weekend that Mr Mandelson was holding out for a return to Cabinet. This would surely have been a step too far even for a Prime Minister as prepared to cock a snook at his colleagues as Mr Blair, but it had the desired effect of making the Commission job seem the lesser of two evils, a consolation prize acceptable to his enemies.

Even before yesterday's announcement, Mr Mandelson had been working his way back into the heart of Government, attending strategy meetings at Number Ten and filling the vacuum left by Alastair Campbell's departure.

While his appointment to Brussels may take him away from the domestic arena, it represents an attempt by the Prime Minister to put his European ambitions back on track, with Mr Mandelson expected to play a key part in the referendum on the EU constitution promised for next year, and perhaps even a referendum on the euro after that. It also rewards an old friend for services rendered.

Having now twice defied his enemies to resurrect his career, and return to the political living, the defiance and determination Mr Mandelson showed in his victory speech three years ago is proof enough that he should never have been written off in the first place. Seeing that performance, what did we expect? Did we think he'd crumble? Did we think he'd lay down and die? Oh no, not him. He will survive.