Hello, this is Hugo Rifkind. Our regular columnists have had the day off today because we've been

listening to Kirste Starrmer's former Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, giving evidence to MPs about the

appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. It was a moment of major jeopardy for the Prime Minister

and a rare opportunity to hear from the man who masterminded Labour's rise to power.

So, to unpack what McSweeney said, I'm handing over to Danny Finkelstein from our sister podcast

How to Win an Election, who is joined by Tom McTagg from the new statesman and Olly Cole

from The Times.

We've been listening to two box office foreign affairs Committee sessions this morning over the Peter Mandelson affair.

I'm Daniel Finkelstein.

First there was Philip Barton, the former head of the foreign office, who said he was told to get on with the appointment of Lord Mandelson.

Then there was Morgan McSweeney.

The Prime Minister's former Chief of Staff admitted making mistakes and said he assumed wrongly that Mandelson was telling the truth about his links to Geoffrey Epstein and then called the Revelations a knife through his soul. We're going to get into this with Tom McTay, the editor of the New Statesman and Olly Cole, but Olli, you're in the studio

with me now. What did you make of what we've just heard? So I think there's a lot of interesting

insights into how those decisions were made, both in the number 10 operation and also in terms of

what was received by the Foreign Office. We heard earlier from Philip Barton about how, you know, essentially he saw this as a pretty, you know, extraordinary appointment

in terms of how quickly it all needed to be done, you know, how the timelines came about,

the fact that the vetting wasn't done until after the appointment of, or the announcement

of Peter Mendelsoelson as US ambassador.

But you've got essentially there two sessions which I think everyone on either side of this question over

whether Kier-Stama can sort of survive the day without getting an ethics probe and this and the other,

can take something from it. I think, you know, Philip Barton managed to sort of differentiate between

the different types of pressure that the Foreign Office felt they were under. Morgan McSweeney

...