Peter Mandelson has said that his political career was damaged by the number of enemies he made during his attempts to modernise the Labour Party in the 1980s.

In an interview with today's Guardian, he says: "I didn't think ahead. I didn't think that one day I would be a politician standing in my own right needing support, needing the political base that any politician requires."

The former cabinet minister and still close friend of the prime minister says that his social life is now virtually non-existent - "nobody invites me anymore".

During the interview, Mandelson claims he has no hopes of a return to government: "I'm happy but I'm not fulfilled. I love my constituency, I love being in parliament.

"But could I do more? Look, when you've run a department of 7000 civil servants as I did at the DTI, or did what I did in Northern Ireland, day in or day out, you know, I have to admit my life is very different."