ICARUS famously fell to Earth after he flew too close to the sun, melting his waxen wings.

But he only did it once. Lord Peter Mandelson, more than anyone the architect of New Labour, follows the Icarus example on a regular basis.

And the cause of his plummeting to ground again and again is always the same — his love of the super-rich and his desire to emulate their lifestyle.

He it was who said he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich.” So relaxed he sought to comfort financier and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein even after his “best pal” had been convicted for child sex abuse offences.

The final revelations — which included the ambassador to Washington assuring Epstein that his conviction could not have happened in Britain — were too much even for a Downing Street run by his protege Morgan McSweeney.

Mandelson’s dismissal is certainly a blow to the Blairite cabal increasingly directing the government.

But it also raises yet further questions about the judgement of Keir Starmer, who overlooked career diplomats to give the plum posting to someone who has lived all their life in a swirl of controversy.

And it highlights the perils of truckling to the rich, and seeking their favours, as both Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have been shown to have done in accepting clothing and other freebies from millionaires.

The air may now be a little sweeter in Britain’s Washington embassy, but the stench of New Labour’s moral corruption continues to poison the atmosphere in Westminster.