18/04/2026
The Week in Westminster
BBC
4.0 • 258 Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The row over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador erupted again this week. Sonia discusses the issues raised over security clearance with Hannah White, Director of The Institute for Government and Caroline Slocock, a former civil servant who was private secretary to Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
Sonia discusses the impact on the UK economy of the war in Iran with Labour peer Stewart Wood, who is a former adviser to Gordon Brown and Chair of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. And Rupert Harrison, who worked alongside George Osborne at the Treasury, and is now a senior adviser at the investment management company Pimco.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister spoke of closer ties with the EU on food and other goods. To discuss this Sonia is joined by Labour MP Catherine West who is a former Foreign Office Minister and Reform UK MP Danny Kruger.
And, last month legislation was finally passed to remove the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords. To reflect on their removal Sonia is joined by two hereditary peers: crossbencher Charles Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon and the Liberal Democrat Lord Thurso, who is also a former MP.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.5 | This is Sonia Soda with The Week in Westminster. |
| 0:09.6 | It was already shaping up to be a tricky week for the government. |
| 0:13.4 | First, a former Labour Defence Secretary claimed corrosive complacency was putting the UK in peril. |
| 0:20.7 | Next, the IMF warned that the UK will be |
| 0:23.6 | hardest hit of all the advanced economies by the Iran War. But then, the issue of Peter |
| 0:30.1 | Mandelson's appointment as US ambassador re-exploaded when the Guardian reported he had been sent to |
| 0:36.7 | Washington despite failing his security vetting. |
| 0:40.6 | Number 10 insisted neither the Prime Minister nor any other minister had been told, |
| 0:46.3 | either at the time or after Peter Mandelson was sacked. |
| 0:50.4 | The leader at the opposition, Kemi Badenok, called for Sarkkeir Stama to resign. |
| 0:55.9 | It is completely preposterous for us to believe that when the Prime Minister said on the floor of the House, when I asked him, |
| 1:03.2 | the full due process was followed, that officials who knew that was not the case would not have told him. |
| 1:08.8 | And this was a Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davy. |
| 1:12.2 | I think the evidence suggests that he misled the Commons and misled the public. |
| 1:16.7 | That's against all the rules, and that's why we've called for him to go. |
| 1:22.1 | Kirstama responded on Friday morning. |
| 1:24.8 | That I wasn't told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he's appointed |
| 1:32.3 | is staggering. |
| 1:34.3 | That I wasn't told that it failed security vetting when I was telling Parliament that due |
| 1:40.3 | process had been followed is unforgivable. |
| 1:43.3 | Not only was I not told, no minister was told. |
... |
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