Did Keir Starmer “lie, lie and lie again" over Mandelson?
4/17/202637 min
That's the charge from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who has called on the Prime Minister to resign today.
The Guardian reported last night that Starmer appointed Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington even though he had failed government security vetting. The PM has said today he is "absolutely furious" he was not told about this - and has sacked Olly Robbins, the top civil servant at the Foreign Office.
Starmer had previously insisted that “full due process” was followed in the appointment, and that Mandelson had cleared the vetting. Could it really be the case that Starmer was never alerted to the vetting issues? And if he was never told - should it have been his job to know? Why does he keep coming across as a passenger, rather than the driver, of government?
And does the latest revelation in the Mandelson affair put the PM in fresh peril - just as it looked like the leadership speculation was beginning to dim?
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[digital music] This is a Global Player original podcast.
Lewis Goodall· Host0:05
It felt to me like deep faux outrage.
Jon Sopel· Host0:07
It's hard to believe that everything falls into place as currently explained to us.
Lewis Goodall· Host0:14
It either makes him look, once again, like a gullible fool who is deeply incurious about his own government, or he's lying.
Jon Sopel· Host0:20
You may be able to thread the needle and say, "Okay, yeah, this all makes sense."
Lewis Goodall· Host0:26
Oh, look, I'm, I'm as pissed off as you, mate. God. God. Yeah, I know. God, we're, we're all in this together, aren't we?
Keir Starmer· Soundbite0:30
That I wasn't told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he's appointed is staggering. That I wasn't told that he'd failed security vetting when I was telling Parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable.
Jon Sopel· Host0:48
That is the Prime Minister once again sounding furious, once again saying that he was blindsided. He's either telling the truth or he's in a deep spot of bother right now. But how much longer can he go on when there's this pervasive sense of helplessness, hopelessness, and haplessness? Welcome to the News Agents.
Speaker 01:13
[news jingle] The News Agents.
Jon Sopel· Host1:19
It's John in the studio.
Lewis Goodall· Host1:21
And it's Lewis in Colombo. A very, uh, humid Colombo. Not the detective, I hasten to add. The, the city in Sri Lanka.
Jon Sopel· Host1:28
What are you doing there?