Starmer was told to vet Mandelson first. So why didn’t he?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
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Summary
Keir Starmer is still pleading his case before MPs. Should he have been told about the failed Mandelson vetting by Olly Robbins? Should he have asked? Who’s fault was it really that he didn’t find out until last Tuesday. And why, critically, did he ignore a letter of advice from then cabinet secretary Simon Case explicitly telling him to vet Mandelson BEFORE appointing him. We still have no clear answer…
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is sponsored by HSBC UK Private Bank, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.4 | This is a global player original podcast. If he misled Parliament, should he have corrected it the moment he realised that statement to be false? |
| 0:19.8 | What is it about your political operation that you don't understand what the hell is going on? |
| 0:24.4 | If he wanted to carry out that appointment of Mandelson, he should do the vetting first. |
| 0:29.6 | I think that for Kemi Badenock, this is all my dreams come true. |
| 0:33.6 | I encourage all members to engage in respectful debate and our constituents would expect. |
| 0:40.4 | I therefore now comes the statement, Prime Minister Keir Stama. |
| 0:44.3 | Yeah! |
| 0:45.6 | After a weekend in which accusations have been flying that Keir Stama is a liar, is dishonest. |
| 0:53.2 | That is the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle today, telling MPs, |
| 0:57.1 | just take a breath and be respectful when the Prime Minister stands up to make his statement |
| 1:04.1 | which he's about to do. We are going to bring you, Keir Stammer's statement, |
| 1:09.7 | Kemi Bader Knox's response and our understanding of where |
| 1:14.0 | this all leaves, our Prime Minister, at the end of a tumultuous weekend. Welcome to the Newsagents. |
| 1:26.3 | The News Agents |
| 1:27.7 | It's John. |
| 1:30.3 | It's meekless. |
| 1:31.3 | And in a few moments, Keir Stama will be standing up at the dispatch box in the House of Commons, |
| 1:38.2 | with a lot of Labour MPs very anxious behind him. |
| 1:43.2 | And opposite him will be Conserv conservatives baying for blood because |
| 1:48.2 | this has been a fiasco. There's no doubt about it. And what we thought we'd do is we'd spend |
| 1:53.5 | the first part of this podcast while we're waiting for Stama to get to his feet to talk about |
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