Lord Mandelson was on good form this morning at a briefing at Labour HQ.

There was a comment on Sam Cameron after Tory leader David Cameron yesterday signalled she would hit the campaign trail.

There was also political flirting with the Lib Dems as the Business Secretary insisted Labour remained the "underdog" at the coming election.

And there was a clear dig that the Tories were Ashcroft's party not Cameron's.

A little addition to today's story about the mothballing of the Corus steel plant on Teesside following my interview with Business Secretary Lord Mandelson yesterday:

"We have already put together a £60m package to support a Teesside industrial programme.

"Now I hope there will be many demands on that cash, but including what we need to do to keep the skills base together at Teesside and to do what we can to make sure the plant reopens and starts production again."

Asked specifically if the fund could be used to help reopening, he said: "That's what it's there for."

Interesting.

Words from Business Secretary Lord Mandelson today at an event at his Whitehall department. He was talking about the importance of securing economic growth, but perhaps recognised an over-focus on saving the banks?

"Frankly, we didn't have that growth plan sufficiently in place a year ago. We weren't sufficiently identifying the growth sectors in markets and technologies where we are going to find our future jobs. And we dealt with that and we changed the way in which we approach these matters.

News in that another Labour MP is announcing he will quit at the next general election.

But interestingly, the decision by Tyne Bridge's David Clelland opens up a vacancy for the plum seat of Gateshead.

Obviously, there have been lots of rumours about Lord Mandelson fancying his chances with a return to the Commons - perhaps to take the crown.

And given we are now so near to the general election, national Labour chiefs now steer the process to find a new candidate.

JUST how much money does Lord Mandelson have?

I only ask having watched his interview on the Politics Show in which he discussed Government support for Corus workers in Teesside.

As he says, "I myself have put in millions of pounds to that company to support training".
Sadly he ruled out using the Government's money to subsidise the workforce there. And even sadder still, a simple, verging on rude, "no" when asked if he would ever return to the region as an MP.