Damning Mandelson files leave Starmer reeling
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
The Mandelson files have been released, and they are damning.
The documents reveal that Sir Keir Starmer was warned that appointing Lord Mandelson as US ambassador posed a “reputational risk” over his “particularly close” relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. They also make clear the PM knew the peer remained friends with Epstein even after his conviction for child sex offences.
After sifting through the 147 pages, Tim and Camilla decipher the biggest revelations – including that Lord Mandelson was handed a £75,000 payout amid fears he might “go public”.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:05.0 | The Mandelson files have been released and they're damning. |
| 0:13.0 | We've learnt that Starmer was warned the peer posed a reputational risk before he appointed him US ambassador, |
| 0:19.0 | and he knew that Mandelson was friends with Jeffrey Epstein |
| 0:22.3 | after his conviction for Peter Filia. |
| 0:24.8 | We've sifted through the 147 pages of documents and deciphered the biggest revelations, |
| 0:31.0 | including that Mandelson was handed a £75,000 payout amid fears that he might go public. |
| 0:38.3 | Welcome to the Daily Tea with me, Camilla Tomini. |
| 0:40.8 | And me, Tim Stanley. |
| 0:52.2 | Tim, we've got out the highlighters this afternoon. |
| 0:55.3 | And the post-it notes. |
| 0:56.3 | We've raided the stationery cupboard. |
| 0:58.1 | We've got folders full of the first tranche of the D-D-D-D-Dur-Mandelson files. |
| 1:03.8 | 147 pages. |
| 1:05.7 | And we wondered this morning, how revelatory are they going to be? |
| 1:09.1 | They're great, aren't they? |
| 1:10.3 | In the parliamentary lobby this morning, we thought it might be going to be? They're great, aren't they? In the parliamentary |
| 1:11.2 | lobby this morning, we thought it might be disappointing, because of course, we were warned that |
| 1:15.9 | one thing that will be missing from these files is what Peter Mandelson said to the Prime |
| 1:20.5 | Minister. And the Prime Minister's defence is Peter Mandelson lied to me. Yeah. But the little |
| 1:26.1 | information that is contained in the files is devastating, and we shall explain why. |
| 1:31.3 | But let's quickly run through the timeline to remind ourselves of how we got here. |
... |
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