Could the Mandelson scandal bring down Keir Starmer?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Keir Starmer says Peter Mandelson "lied repeatedly" about the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and said that he regrets appointing the Labour Peer as US ambassador in 2024. But with the relationship between the men well known, questions about the Prime Minister's political judgement are looming. Could this be the moment that brings down the Prime Minister?
Later, Sir Brian Leveson on why the courts system faces potential collapse without major reform - and the calls to resurrect his investigations into phone hacking and the media.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK commercial banking, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.6 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:13.4 | Mr Speaker, he lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein before and during his tenure as ambassador. |
| 0:23.7 | I regret appointing him. If I knew then, what I know now, he would never have been anywhere |
| 0:30.1 | near government. And that is why, Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Cabinet Secretary, with my support, |
| 0:40.5 | took the decision to refer material to the police. That's the Prime Minister, Kirstama, speaking at Prime Minister's questions, offering |
| 0:44.9 | a mere culper over Peter Mandelson, saying that he regrets appointing him in the first place. |
| 0:51.2 | That that should be a matter of regret is not surprising. But increasingly |
| 0:55.6 | MPs, including MPs on his own side, are asking whether this is a fundamental question over |
| 1:02.7 | his own political judgments. He was forced to admit today that he knew about the ongoing relationship |
| 1:09.6 | between the ambassadorial candidate and a known paedophile. |
| 1:14.4 | If he knew, why did he appoint him? |
| 1:17.4 | And if we know that now, could it signal the beginning of the end of Kirstama? |
| 1:23.7 | Welcome to the Newsagents. |
| 1:29.2 | The Newsagents. The Newsagents. |
| 1:30.7 | It's Emily. |
| 1:31.5 | It's Lewis. |
| 1:32.3 | And Prime Minister's questions and the debate which followed it over Peter Mandelson |
| 1:37.6 | was dominated by, as we were saying, |
| 1:40.5 | Kirstama's not quite apology, but signal of regrets and indeed a central question, |
| 1:46.4 | one that was put by Kemi Badnock again and again. Essentially, what did the Prime Minister |
| 1:51.4 | know about Peter Mandelson's relationship with Geoffrey Epstein and when did he know it? This |
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