How Mandelson continues to haunt Labour
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 β’ 2.2K Ratings
ποΈ 1 June 2026
β±οΈ 21 minutes
ποΈ Recording | iTunes | RSS
π§ΎοΈ Download transcript
Summary
As Parliament returns from recess, the latest files related to Peter Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US are due to be released today. How bad could they be for Labour? Tim Shipman joins James Heale to discuss β has the self-styled 'Prince of Darkness' proven to be more a ghost of Christmas past for the government?
Plus: Mandelson isn't the only ghost haunting British politics today. Tim and James discuss the ghost of Christmas present, the scandal facing the SNP. Former party treasurer β and husband to Nicola Sturgeon β Peter Murrell pled guilty to charges of embezzlement, prompting the former First Minister to deliver a teary interview to the BBC at the weekend. How believable did they find Sturgeon? And, with two by-elections on the horizon, what consequences could there be for the SNP?
Finally: the boys discuss the latest poll showing Trade Union support ebbing away from Labour towards Reform. So β continuing the Dickensian metaphor (sorry) β could this be Labour's very own ghost of Christmas future?
Produced by Megan McElroy and Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:40.0 | Hello, welcome to Profoverley House Shots. I'm James Seale and I'm joined today by Tim Shipman. |
| 0:44.0 | Now Tim, we've been waiting weeks, months for the release of the Prince of Darkness |
| 0:48.9 | and files and today we finally get them. What are we sort of expecting to see later today? |
| 0:52.4 | I'm not sure we actually know and Peter Mandelson doesn't know either, interestingly. |
| 0:57.0 | There's a whole sheaf of communications between him and various members of the government, |
| 1:01.0 | including the Prime Minister, but they've gone through a double sort of vetting process. |
| 1:06.0 | Once in the Cabinet Office and then to the Intelligence and Security Committee, |
| 1:10.0 | and we're told there'll be |
| 1:12.2 | reductions, and bluntly we don't really know how many. What we do know, because the briefing, |
| 1:17.9 | is going to be very embarrassing. There doesn't seem to be anything that they are sort of |
| 1:23.9 | existentially concerned about blowing up the Prime Minister. Well, you know, the prime minister politically at least is sort of scattered across Westminster in multiple |
| 1:32.6 | pieces already. So, you know, were there a smoking gun that sort of showed that Stammer knew much |
| 1:38.5 | more about Madelson's relationship with Epstein before he made the appointment, then I guess |
| 1:43.3 | that would be pretty damaging. |
... |
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