Peter Mandelson has been accused of appealing to “tribal loyalties” in the race to be the next chancellor of Oxford University.
Undergraduate students associated with Oxford’s Labour Club have been campaigning for Lord Mandelson to be the university’s next chancellor, the ceremonial head of the university.
Some Labour MPs who are alumni of the university have also been helping to drum up support for the former cabinet minister, the Telegraph understands.
Undergraduates are not eligible to vote in the election of the next chancellor, which will take place the week of October 28.
More than 250,000 graduates of the university are technically eligible to vote in the election, along with academics at the university, if they have registered to vote online.
In their efforts to elect Lord Mandelson, student activists have tried to sign up graduates to vote in order to “make the race more representative” and Labour-friendly. Some have tried to persuade their tutors to support Lord Mandelson.
Labour-supporting undergraduates have also been involved in helping the party’s former “spin doctor” to plan events which seek to boost his profile at the university. Lord Mandelson has no full-time campaigning team.
But some dons have expressed their displeasure at the 70-year old accepting help from current students to influence the race.
“At a university of all places, Lord Mandelson should be promoting his cause by the strength of his reasons, not by appealing to tribal loyalties,” said one senior academic at the university.
“The chancellor of Oxford should be above party politics and should strive to represent the whole university. It’s to be hoped that an electorate as experienced and informed as Oxford’s MAs will see through his immature behaviour and vote for a better candidate who understands the chancellor’s role,” said another don.
“It’s so naff, for 20-year olds to be hassling people and asking them to vote. I think it is highly counterproductive,” said another.
The chancellorship is a largely ceremonial role, but Lord Mandelson has said he would draw on his “political links with the new Government to advocate for Oxford and the university sector.”
Candidates for the university chancellorship have not traditionally campaigned for the role in the past, instead being elected at a ceremonial gathering of the electorate. But this year’s election is the first election to be held online.
Other politicians running for the position include William Hague, the former foreign secretary, who has received an endorsement from the Oxford University Conservative Association. In all 38 candidates have successfully submitted applications to stand in the election.
The Oxford chancellor role has often been held by former Conservative politicians including Lord Patten, the outgoing chancellor, and Harold Macmillan, the former prime minister who served in the role from 1960 to 1986.
Roy Jenkins, though once a Labour cabinet minister, held the position when he was an SDP and later Liberal Democrat politician.
“What I’ve been doing is reaching out to people, letting them know that this election is happening because it’s almost always been a Conservative chancellor, but we want people to know that this one is different. It’s online and we can make sure it’s more representative,” said one student supporting Lord Mandelson.
“There are a lot of Labour MPs who were at Oxford, who were previously involved in Labour student politics, who have reached out to the campaign, because they want it to be a Labour result,” said another.
Janet Royall, a Labour peer and former cabinet colleague of Lord Mandelson, is also running for the position.
Lord Mandelson told the Telegraph: “I have been a two-term chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University and I therefore know how to support a university but, as an alumnus myself, I also know Oxford University is a global university and I have the international connections and networks to help it remain so.
“I welcome the support of people of all political persuasions and none, and I hope everyone who can will cast a vote in this election.”