Mandelson: A Homosexual History - Episode 6

Bad Gays

Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

History

4.5 • 934 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The final episode of our saga: Mandelson's fall from grace in the aftermath of Keir Starmer's election first as leader of the Labour Party and then as one of Britain's most rapidly unpopular Prime Ministers. Can't get enough Mandelson? Subscribe now to Extra Bad Gays to hear our subscriber-only followup discussion with James Butler of the LRB and Juliet Jacques of Suite 212. Mandelson knows too much, understands too much, to be left out of the equation. It’s because he’s sly and underhanded and deceitful that people need him, because it’s a political system that works on those qualities. This is court politics; it’s what Mandelson is a master of, it’s what Epstein was a master of, it’s what Trump is a master of: the informal power of relationships. ----more---- SOURCES: Mandelson and the making of New Labour, Donald Macintyre Mandy: The Unauthorised Biography of Peter Mandelson, Paul Routledge Outrageous! The Story of Section 28 and Britain's Battle for LGBT Education, Paul Baker Tory Pride and Prejudice: The Conservative Party and homosexual law reform, Michael McManus The Rivals : the intimate story of a political marriage, James Naughtie Bloody Nasty People, Daniel Trilling Clampdown: Pop-Cultural wars on class and Gender, Rhian E. Jones 1997: The Future That Never Happened, Richard Power Sayeed Authentocrats: Culture, Politics and the New Seriousness, Joe Kennedy https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/lord-mandelson-lord-speakers-corner/ https://newhistories.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/volumes/2011-12/volume-3/issue-7-open-theme/the-long-road-to-repeal-the-labour-party-and-section-28 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jan/25/mandelson.labour6 https://ntouk.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/wilsons-white-heat-of-technology-speech.pdf https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/media-the-dirty-world-of-mr-punch-1187016.html#:~:text=Last%20week%20an%20internationally%20famous,then%2Downers%2C%20United%20Newspapers. https://jennifrazer.com/mandelson-judaism-lord-levy-jc-dad/ https://johnmajorarchive.org.uk/1993/10/08/mr-majors-speech-to-1993-conservative-party-conference-8-october-1993/ https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/lord-mandelson-lord-speakers-corner/ https://newhistories.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/volumes/2011-12/volume-3/issue-7-open-theme/the-long-road-to-repeal-the-labour-party-and-section-28 https://www.newsweek.com/one-bonk-and-youre-out-181768 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jan/25/mandelson.labour6 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/03/mandelson.labour2 https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/12/23/peter-mandelson-boris-johnson-bum-boys-about-homophobic-attack/ https://petertatchell.net/lgbt_rights/outing/catalyst/ https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/public-attitudes-section-28 https://www.gryklaw.com/https-www-gryklaw-com-lgbt-history-month-coming-of-age-same-sex-relationship-immigration-rights/ https://www.theguardian.com/century/1990-1999/Story/0,,112756,00.html https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/special_reports/justice-lost-in-the-post.pdf https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/see-epsteins-full-birthday-book-with-alleged-personal-messages-from-trump-clinton-and-others https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdr6yjzkvx6o http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/630399.stm https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/nov/17/northernireland.guardianleaders https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68079300 https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/peter-mandelson-why-its-taken-me-27-years-to-marry-the-love-of-my-life-3gx8cfgs5 https://www.stonewall.org.uk/resources/lgbtq-hubs/trans-hub/gender-recognition-act-2004 https://www.economist.com/briefing/2007/05/10/the-great-performer-leaves-the-stage https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/extras/lgbt09.pdf https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/13/mandelson-lords https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/13/mandelson-gayrights https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/oct/25/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the sixth and final episode of Mandelson, a homosexual history, a special series from the creators of Bad Gays.
0:29.4	My name is Ben Miller. I'm a writer, historian, member of the board of the Schulles Museum in Berlin, currently at work on a biography of the fashion designer Rudy Gernrick.
0:38.0	And my name's Hugh Lemmy. I'm a writer and author. Last week, we followed Peter Mandelson
0:42.0	through his time as European Trade Commissioner, through the interregnum in the Labour Party of a
0:48.9	genuinely left-wing alternative to the prevailing court politics of the UK, and the rights, a use of Kirstarmer,
0:56.4	and lies about what Kirstarmer stood for, to take back control of the Labour Party after
1:01.9	Corbin lost the 2019 election to Boris Johnson. Right. So when we left, Morgan McSweeney,
1:08.0	this sort of big-wake strategist,-doctor, a political planner extraordinaire,
1:12.8	he now seemed in total control of the direction of Starmer's Labour Party.
1:16.7	The left was being harshly disciplined, if not expelled.
1:20.2	And after Labour won the 2024 general election, he would go on to become the chief of staff
1:25.6	at 10 Downing Street, which is probably the most
1:28.2	powerful unelected figure in Britain, short of His Majesty the King.
1:33.1	And even then, I think probably in terms of real power, Morgan McSweeney had more.
1:37.8	But it became obvious that Peter Mandelson, who had been so central to the project of Labour
1:42.1	Together and providing his informal advice, always informal,
1:46.5	to this team via these regular meetings, including those at Roger Little's house, it was obvious
1:51.9	he'd be wanting a role. He'd been out of power, out of official power for too long. There were
1:57.7	reports that the two men were in daily communication, and Mandelson said of Morgan McSweeney, quote,
2:02.9	I don't know who and how and when he was invented, but whoever it was, they will find their place in heaven, end quote.
2:09.6	And I think that's really how he perceived him. He was sort of this heaven-sent strategist who could win back the Labour Party towards a sort of Mandelson-Belair new
2:19.1	labourism. So when it came time for Downing Street to appoint a new ambassador to the United States,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.