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Newscast

MPs Grill Starmer Over Mandelson (Again)

Newscast

BBC

Politics, Daily News, News

4.36.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, the Prime Minister has faced questions from MPs over the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, despite failing security vetting.

Sir Keir Starmer accused officials in the Foreign Office of deliberately and repeatedly withholding the fact Lord Mandelson initially failed security vetting for the role. Giving a statement to MPs, the prime minister said if he had known, he would not have gone ahead with the appointment. Adam and Chris discuss where this leaves Starmer.

And, on a day where the status of US-Iran ceasefire talks are unclear Adam speaks to chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet from Tehran.

You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord

Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.

New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Anna Harris and Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producer was Jem Westgate. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.

0:05.9

Chris, we've popped up on Radio 2 again.

0:08.8

I was excited at this moment.

0:11.0

I was excited.

0:11.8

I was driving back from the swimming pool with my kids,

0:14.1

and this thing just came on,

0:15.8

which I loved because I'm always listening on a Sunday lunchtime

0:18.7

after I come back from the swimming pool.

0:20.3

And we'll do a little bit of backstory. So when Chris and I were making our TV program on Thursday night on BBC 1 after question time, Chris was in Westminster and I was in Broadcasting House. So on screen, we were in two separate boxes. And then the wags that helped make newscast said, oh, you could do a virtual high five, where one of you puts one hand out and the other one puts out the other hand, and it'll look like you're doing a high five on the screen. Except it went wrong. Because we've kind of got the angles wrong, didn't we? Because we can't see each other, or at least I can't see you from where I'm sitting, even if on screen it looks like we're alongside each other. And so I think

0:54.9

what, we are great, we arranged to lift up our right hands, didn't we? But my, what was it left? Oh, right. Okay, we got that right. In my case. Anyway, I got it right, just saying. Yeah, our hands were at 90 degrees to each other, weren't they? I'm just trying it again, you see, right now. But I don't know which way it needs to be. Anyway, so during this fiasco

1:14.2

of handraising, you said, oh, this is like the Paddy McGuinness quiz he does, where he gets people

1:19.0

to guess where he's holding up his left hand or his right hand. The weakest link, he calls it,

1:22.5

about the week's event. Yes. And then, cue the latest edition of Paddy McGuinness's

1:28.1

Radio 2 show.

1:29.0

Lovely message from

1:30.2

Linda.

1:31.0

Paddy, did you know

1:32.5

that you were

1:33.2

mentioned on BBC 1's

1:35.0

news program

1:35.9

newscast on

1:37.1

Thursday evening?

...

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