Starmer takes responsibility for Mandelson – but did he lie to Parliament?
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Summary
It’s the day after the release of the Mandelson files and now attention is turning to what isn’t in the documents. Crucially, we don’t know how the Prime Minister responded once he was presented with clear evidence that the Labour peer had a close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Sir Keir has insisted to Parliament that due process was followed at all times. But Tim and Camilla ask: do the revelations contained in these files make a mockery of that claim?
Plus, the Government has pushed ahead with a formal definition of anti-Muslim hate despite concerns that it will be used to suppress free speech. We’re joined by the former Tory MP and lawyer Dominic Grieve, who co-wrote the new definition, to ask why Labour is prioritising this kind of discrimination just as anti-Semitism is on the rise.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph |
| 0:02.0 | Kirstama has accepted full responsibility for the Mandelson scandal. |
| 0:14.0 | It's me who made the mistake, he says. |
| 0:16.0 | It's me who apologises to Epstein's victims. |
| 0:19.0 | But did the Prime Minister mislead the House of Commons and lie to Parliament? |
| 0:23.6 | And is the government guilty of breaking the ministerial code with that £75,000 pay-off? |
| 0:30.6 | And the government's anti-Muslim definition, is it going to suppress free speech |
| 0:35.6 | and lead to figures like me and Tim being accused of Islamophobia? |
| 0:40.7 | We spoke to the man who wrote the definition, Dominic Grieve, and asked, why do we need this at all when it's already illegal? |
| 0:47.3 | And is this the right time to do it when anti-Semitism is on the rise? |
| 0:51.7 | Welcome to the Daily Tea with me, Camilla Tomini. |
| 0:54.0 | And me, Tim Stanley. |
| 1:05.4 | Tim, it's the morning after the release of the Mandi files. |
| 1:08.5 | We did cover their contents extensively yesterday as we got out |
| 1:12.4 | our highlighters and our folders. But this isn't going away for the Prime Minister, is it? |
| 1:18.6 | No, it's not because it's a question about his judgment and whether or not he's been entirely |
| 1:24.6 | open with us about how Mandy was appointed. |
| 1:28.2 | So as we detailed yesterday, there are three killer pages in these files which amount to 147 pages altogether, |
| 1:35.5 | which lay bare all of Mandelson's quite dodgy associations. |
| 1:41.0 | And we discussed yesterday, before you even get to Epstein, you've got to get through his chairmanship of Global Council, which had links to China, Russia, Qatar and others. |
| 1:52.6 | His links to the Hinduja brothers and his loan from Geoffrey Robertson, over both of which he had to resign when he was previously in government. |
| 1:59.7 | We also have an extensive |
... |
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