Will Starmer's body count prove fatal for his premiership?
4/28/202648 min
Morgan McSweeney was called before MPs to explain HIS version of how Mandelson was hired: was he just finding a great job for a mate? Why hadn’t he responded to all the red flag warnings? Was due process really followed? And had he put Starmer in a position where the PM wasn’t told the whole truth?
Later, Tom Baldwin - Starmer’s friend and biographer- on how, and whether, the PM can survive, and whether the high body count of sacked staff speaks to a wider malaise in his Downing Street.
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First 90 secondsMorgan McSweeney· Soundbite0:00
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Jon Sopel· Host0:05
There is a mutual loathing between Starmer and Mandelson. It is absolutely also true that McSweeney and Mandelson had a very, very close relationship.
Emily Maitlis· Host0:12
He was basically finding a job for his mate.
Lewis Goodall· Host0:15
Starmer wanted to keep Mandelson at arm's length.
Emily Maitlis· Host0:18
They'd all seen the diligence that came back in December saying, "Warning, warning, this guy is a risk," with their red flags waved.
Jon Sopel· Host0:26
When you strip all of this away, this story is about something really constitutionally important, which is whether the Prime Minister tells the House of Commons the truth.
Morgan McSweeney· Soundbite0:35
The nature of the relationship that I understood he had with Epstein was not a close friendship. How I understood it at the time was a passing acquaintance that he, uh, regretted having and that he apologized for. What has emerged since then was way, way, way worse than I had expected at the time, and it was when I saw the pictures, when I saw the Bloomberg questions in September of twenty twenty-five, I have to say it was like a knife through my soul.
Jon Sopel· Host1:05
That is Morgan McSweeney, the former chief of staff to Keir Starmer, and the man who until now has lived in the shadows, explaining why he got it so very badly wrong to support Peter Mandelson as Britain's ambassador to Washington.
Emily Maitlis· Host1:21
He's been called before a parliamentary committee to explain whether it was him that pushed that appointment through to get