Mandelson to stay at Nat’s ski chalet

George Osborne, the Tory shadow chancellor, may have resolved not to spend any more time as a guest of the Rothschild family, but Lord Mandelson has no such qualms.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Labour's Machiavellian Business Minister (pictured) is to spend Christmas at Nat Rothschild's chalet in the Austrian ski resort Klosters. "Peter will be coming out for Christmas," a source close to Rothschild told the paper. "He is becoming something of a regular at his chalet."

Mandelson's relationship with Rothschild became a major talking point two months ago when it was revealed that the former European trade commissioner had, while staying with Nat in Corfu, been entertained aboard the yacht of Oleg Deripaska, the Russian aluminium tycoon, whose businesses benefited from tariffs the commission set.

And more controversy was garnered when it was revealed by Rothschild in a letter to the Times that Osborne, a fellow guest in Corfu, allegedly approached Deripaska for a £50,000 donation for the Tory Party. This was felt to be a reprisal for Osborne leaking to the press a converastion he had with Mandelson at a taverna on the island, in which he said the business minister had "dripped pure poison" about Gordon Brown.