Q&A: more pain for Starmer but 'No more Mr. Nice Guy' for Iran
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sir Keir Starmer has dodged a bullet on the Mandelson vetting scandal but did he expend too much political capital in the process? With local elections around the corner he’s not out of the woods yet, so what can we expect from next week's results? And more than 60 days into the Iran war, Trump has proclaimed there's 'No more Mr. Nice Guy' - so are we about to see renewed military action from the USA? Hosts Manveen Rana and Luke Jones are here to answer your questions in our monthly Q&A.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory
Hosts: Manveen Rana and Luke Jones.
Guest: Aubrey Allegretti, chief political correspondent, The Times.
Producers: Olivia Case and Callum Martin.
We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com
Read more: Iran war latest: Trump warns Tehran ‘No more Mr Nice Guy’ in Truth Social post
Further listening: ‘The punishment election’: Is Labour facing a bloodbath in Wales?
Clips: The Independent, Sky.
Image: @realDonaldTrump / Truth Social
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:05.7 | I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:07.2 | And I'm Luke Jones. |
| 0:08.2 | And by popular demand, and also, because it says in the schedule, we're back together. |
| 0:12.9 | I think we should claim it as popular demand. |
| 0:15.0 | Yeah, exactly. |
| 0:15.8 | I don't know what the numbers are, but they probably bear it out. |
| 0:18.2 | For our regular Q&A, so we're going to look through lots of things |
| 0:21.3 | which you've been sending questions to the Times about, including... |
| 0:25.0 | Including the Mandelson scandal and how it somehow still playing out across Westminster, |
| 0:31.5 | what it might mean for Kirstarmer and his future. |
| 0:34.3 | Also, we'll touch base with what's happening in the war in the Middle East, in around |
| 0:38.1 | 60 days into that conflict. Is any kind of an end in sight, or is it just going to be one of |
| 0:43.7 | those entrenched conflicts which Donald Trump warned us all about so much? We've got all of that |
| 0:48.6 | and more on this, the last Thursday of the month. It's an appointment listening now. |
| 0:54.0 | The story today, your questions, |
| 0:56.6 | answered. Let's head straight to Westminster. On Tuesday, we had another pair of people |
| 1:10.2 | talking about what they did or didn't know |
| 1:13.1 | about Peter Mandelson as he was appointed UK ambassador to the United States. We had that vote in |
| 1:20.6 | the Commons on Tuesday evening about whether or not the question of Sakeir Stama misleading the |
| 1:27.2 | House should be investigated by the privileges |
| 1:29.6 | committee. They of finally putting the nail in Boris Johnson's political coffin fame. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.