The Peter Mandelson Files (Again)
6/1/202631 min
Today, more than 1000 pages of documents about Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US have been published by the government.
Adam, Chris and Joe get together to discuss what the files tell us about Peter Mandelson’s vetting process, his relationship with some of the government’s most senior figures and his thoughts on the Prime Minister’s leadership.
Some of the files have been redacted or held back as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office by Peter Mandelson. He has repeatedly let it be known that he believes he has not acted criminally, did not act for personal gain and is co-operating with police
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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Anna Harris. The social producer was Jem Westgate. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Speaker 00:32
[short musical burst] Chris, what a treat for you after your half-term break to return to, what was it? Three hundred and forty emails, fifty-six separate WhatsApp conversations, fifteen letters, and notes of twenty-six meetings.
Chris Mason· Host0:46
Yeah, it's just my inbox.
Speaker 00:47
[laughs] Yeah. [laughs] As I was reading that, I was like, oh yeah, I bet you've probably actually got more unread emails than that.
Chris Mason· Host0:51
I thought you were about to say the treat that you come down to see us.
Speaker 00:53
Well, that too, yeah.
Chris Mason· Host0:54
Which of course it is. Of course it is.
Speaker 00:55
And Joe Pike is here as well. Hello, Joe.
Chris Mason· Host0:56
Even better.
Joe Pike0:56
Hi. Hi.
Speaker 00:57
Anyway, this tranche of documents I'm referring to is not Chris Mason's holiday inbox. [laughs] It is the latest response by the government to the so-called humble address from Parliament, where pro- prompted by the Tories, they've had to release all the details and correspondence, although not all, um, about Lord Mandelson's time as the ambassador in Washington. So we had the first lot. This is the second lot.
Chris Mason· Host1:17
Yeah.
Speaker 01:17
And it's big.
Chris Mason· Host1:19
It is big. In fact, earlier on, um, the Cabinet Office, the kind of central government department that was charged with sort of pulling all of this together and was responsible for its publication, um, they were, they were wandering