Mandelson mess and Middle East U-turns
3/13/202636 min
It has been a week of red faces for party leaders. On Thursday, Keir Starmer apologised and took personal responsibility for the appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US – after a first round of document disclosures suggested the prime minister was largely absent from the decision-making process. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch were both busy executing awkward U-turns on their earlier vocal support for a US war on Iran that is proving distinctly unpopular with UK voters.
Host Lucy Fisher is joined by the FT’s deputy political editor Jim Pickard, columnist and writer of the ‘Inside Politics’ newsletter Stephen Bush, and political editor George Parker to debate the twists and turns of the week in Westminster.
Clip from: The Mirror
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Political FIx is presented by Lucy Fisher and produced by Laurence Knight.
The executive producer is Flo Phillips. Audio mix by Breen Turner.
The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Our email address is politicalfix@ft.com
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsKeir Starmer· Soundbite0:02
I made a mistake in appointing Peter Mandelson. It was me that made the mistake, and it's me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein, and I do that.
Lucy Fisher· Host0:12
Keir Starmer there taking ownership of the decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to the US. The first tranche of the Mandelson files dropped this week and raised yet more questions about the PM's judgment. But he wasn't the only party leader to suffer a setback. Both Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch have been accused of major U-turns over their Iran war stance. So if it isn't too cynical to pose the question this way, who's had the worst week in Westminster? Welcome to Political Fix from The Financial Times with me, Lucy Fisher. Here with me in the studio to answer that question are the FT's deputy political editor, Jim Pickard. Hi, Jim.
Jim Pickard· Guest0:52
Hi, Lucy.
Lucy Fisher· Host0:53
Columnist and writer of the Inside Politics newsletter, Stephen Bush. Hi, Stephen. Hi, Lucy. And our political editor, George Parker. Hi, George.
George Parker· Guest1:00
Hello, Lucy.
Lucy Fisher· Host1:05
So should we kick off talking about, uh, Peter Mandelson, particularly because we've got you, Jim, and you have really owned this story since twenty twenty-three. This week we had the first tranche of documents released by the government. Do you want to give us a quick recap of what we've learnt from that?
Jim Pickard· Guest1:22
Yeah, I think there's a few things that jumped out from... Now bear in mind, this is only about a hundred and forty pages out of an eventual hundred thousand or