The New Statesman.

Kirstama is all alone.

The Mandelson affair has become less about Peter Mandelson's alleged wrongdoing

and all about Kirstama's ability to run the country.

This week, Olly Robbins, former chief civil servant at the Foreign Office,

insisted the Prime Minister pressured him into clearing

Peter Mandelson for the US Ambassador Post. There was an atmosphere of constant chasing.

When will this? Daily phone calls? I couldn't say for certain daily, but I mean certainly very

frequent from private office to private office. Has this been delivered yet?

Never any interest, as far as I recall, in weather, but only an interest in when.

Then yesterday, Stama was forced to admit his former spin doctor, Matthew Doyle, who was

suspended from the Labour Party over campaigning for a Labour councillor who had been

charged with child sex offences was also considered for a diplomatic role.

Matthew Doyle worked for many years in public service, for me as Prime Minister and other ministers.

When people leave roles in any organisation, there are very often conversations about other roles they may want to apply for.

Labour MPs and even cabinet ministers no longer seem able to defend the Prime Minister.

What else did you need to know at that moment?

Look, it's a fair point.

I mean, look, it's a fair point and he shouldn't have been appointed.

But the frontrunners to replace Starma are also, according to reporting by our editor, Tom McTag, biding their time. How long can they wait? How long can the country wait? I'm Anusha Kellyan and this is the politics show from the New Statesman and Tom is with me in the studio. Hi Tom. Hello. Before we get into this, can you explain to listeners some changes that we're bringing to the podcast?

Yes, so we're going to take the podcast weekly.

So it will be out every week on a Thursday and it will be yourself, myself, myself, and Alvare, our brilliant political editor.

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