Peter Mandelson taken into hospital

Has someone tried to poison him already? Peter Mandelson (pictured), newly appointed Business Secretary in Gordon Brown's reshuffled Cabinet, was taken into hospital early today suffering from abdominal pains. He was released in order to attend this morning's first meeting of the PM's new 'economic war cabinet' at Downing Street but was due to go back to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington to be treated for a kidney stone.

Mandelson's return to the Cabinet had already led to an outbreak of elbow-barging, according to The First Post's source. Yesterday, Andrew Marr was desperate to have the rehabilitated politician on his BBC show Sunday AM, but was told that this was not going to happen, and that it was the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, or nothing. So Marr settled for a less interesting chat with Darling about the economy.

Meanwhile, more information has emerged about the chance encounter in Corfu between Mandelson and Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne which led to Osborne’s claim – broken in the Sunday papers – that Mandy had "dripped pure poison" about the PM into his ear, just weeks before his extraordinary comeback. (Continued below)

Before being taken into hospital, Mandy denied the accusation and said the story "came straight out of the dirty tricks department of the Tory party". Whatever the truth, the meeting in Corfu threw up another titbit. The Daily Telegraph reports that not only did Osborne share a glass of retsina with the prince of darkness, but the two also enjoyed hospitality together aboard Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s 238ft yacht.

"Mr Mandelson, together with the Osbornes, was invited by Mr Deripaska to join him aboard his yacht during the summer for a drinks party and consented," a spokesman for Gordon Brown's new Business Secretary confirmed. "They had been on holiday in the same area and it was purely a social occasion."