Lord Mandelson today warned Labour's Left that there would be no return to the tumultuous days of 1983, insisting that the economic crisis did not mean a return to old policies of top-down state control.

Lord Mandelson today warned Labour's Left that there would be no return to the tumultuous days of 1983, insisting that the economic crisis did not mean a return to old policies of top-down state control.

In an interview with the Blairite Prospect magazine, the Business Secretary said it would be "absurd" to reject the entire market system because of "mistakes of regulation and personal behaviour" in the banking sector.

"There's a danger that some see the financial and banking crisis as an opportunity to resurrect the 1983 party manifesto. It's not going to happen. We've all moved on," declared one of the architects of New Labour.

The 1983 party manifesto, The New Hope for Britain, was famously dubbed "the longest suicide note in history" because it pledged a government under Michael Foot to nationalising the banks, full nuclear disarmament, rebuilding the welfare state and withdrawal from the Common Market, forerunner of the EU.

As the recession begins to bite, Lord Mandelson said the UK Government would promise to "invest money, effort and energy in helping people find their next job while recognising that we can't necessarily save their last one".

The Secretary of State also addressed the danger of defeatism in Labour ranks.

"Because we've been in power for over 10 years, people inevitably think that we're in the final stages of office. Then along comes a real, major national crisis and people think: Hold on, thank goodness the people in power know what to do.' So our lease on office is being extended."

He argued that the UK Government had found itself with a new opportunity to "recreate empathy" with the voters so that they "invite us back into their lives".

The peer said Labour had to prove to the electorate that the party was once again the agent of change and the generator of fresh ideas; if it could do that, then the party stood a "very good chance not just of extending our lease but of renewing it".

Lord Mandelson - back in the cabinet after two resignations - claimed that all his political experience told him that Labour could win the next election.

"That reality is dawning first and foremost on the Conservatives, judging from their hang-dog expression on many of their faces. It's yet to fully dawn on our own party."

The ex-EU commissioner said he felt he had "come home to my political family from which I had become estranged - not through my own choice".

He admitted he was not "universally loved in the party" and also acknowledged that "occasionally" the dislike he triggers got him down.

Revealing how he had always taken a "fairly black and white view" on policies and people, Lord Mandelson added: "If I had my time again, would I have been a bit more careful in how I translated all that? Yes.

"But, fundamentally, would I have done anything different? No."