Peter Mandelson Sacked Over Epstein Messages

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.4 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, Keir Starmer sacked US Ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson following the publication of messages he exchanged with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Adam and Chris discuss how the ambassador’s position became untenable, and what this means for questions around Starmer’s leadership plus Trump’s planned state visit next week.

And Charlie Kirk, an influential right-wing activist and a close ally of US President Donald Trump, was shot dead while speaking at an event at a university in Utah. But who was Charlie Kirk? And what do we know about the ongoing hunt for his killer? Marianna Spring and Caitriona Perry join Adam to discuss what we know so far.

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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://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Miranda Slade with Anna Harris. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. 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	We would love to know more about what you think about this very podcast. Where and when do you listen to it?
0:06.0	What would you like to hear more of? What would you like to hear less of? And the way you can tell us is via the newscast census. The link is in the episode description and you will also find it all over my social media. And we would love to hear your unvarnished thoughts about what we all do
0:22.3	together every day.
0:24.8	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:28.6	Hello, so the last time Lord Mandelson left a government job, he was plain old Peter
0:33.8	Mandelson, he was the Northern Ireland secretary, and he resigned over an issue he was eventually cleared over.
0:39.5	And it was the 24th of January 2001.
0:42.7	That was such a long time ago.
0:44.6	George W. Bush was just then inaugurated as president for his first term in the US.
0:52.0	In the US charts, Destiny's Child were number one with independent woman.
0:56.6	And Tony Blair still had six years to go as Prime Minister of the UK. So that shows you what a
1:02.1	long time Peter Mandelson has been around for. But he will not be around as the British ambassador
1:06.4	in Washington any longer because he was fired from that job today on Thursday. And we will discuss
1:11.9	the events that led up to it and the consequences of it on this episode of Newscast. Newscast from the BBC.
1:19.3	Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons. I was the tappletail in the class.
1:23.6	Can I have an apology, please? I trust almost nobody.
1:26.5	Then daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no salulu.
1:32.5	Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey.
1:38.7	Hello, it's Adam in the Newscast studio. Anna is Chris at Westminster. And we're recording this bit of this episode of newscast at 642 on Thursday evening.
1:46.0	And Chris, the latest thing is that we've just seen the email that Lord Mandelson is sent to all his now ex-colleagues in the embassy in Washington, D.C.
1:53.0	We have, yeah. So these are the first words we've heard from him kind of in public since he was sacked.
2:00.0	So he wrote to, as the staff that he was working with
	...

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