The fall and rise (and fall again) of Peter Mandelson
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 12 September 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The ultimate political animal, Mandelson was no stranger to scandal – having twice been forced to resign from Tony Blair’s Cabinet. But brought back into the Labour fold by Gordon Brown after a successful stint as European Commissioner, the former spin doctor went on to enjoy a career renaissance – which eventually took him to Washington as the UK’s ambassador to the United States.
However, Mandelson was summoned home from DC in disgrace, following the publication of a cache of embarrassing emails and other communications between himself and Epstein.
Was his downfall inevitable? And should Sir Keir Starmer have known better than to entrust one of the biggest diplomatic roles in the world to a man with a track record of self-destruction?
Niall is joined by former ambassador and National Security Advisor, Lord Ricketts, and Sky News’ former political editor, Adam Boulton.
Producer: Emily Hulme
Editor: Mike Bovill
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up on the Daily, our first spin doctor, the Prince of Darkness, ambassador to the United |
| 0:06.3 | States. Peter Mandelson returns from Washington in disgrace, sacked over his relationship with |
| 0:12.0 | Geoffrey Epstein. So who is he? Hi everyone, Neil Patterson, back with another of our profiles. And |
| 0:19.8 | given the week he's had, we thought we'd focus on Lord Mandelson, |
| 0:24.1 | Peter, as he's better known to his many, many friends, |
| 0:28.0 | including, of course, Jeffrey Epstein. |
| 0:30.2 | I'm not answering any questions about him. |
| 0:35.5 | He was in jail at the time for soliciting prostitution from a minor. |
| 0:39.3 | My knowledge of him is something that I regret. |
| 0:42.3 | I wish I'd never met him in the first place. |
| 0:44.3 | Why did you have an association with him? |
| 0:46.3 | Why did many people meet him? |
| 0:48.3 | He was a prolific networker, and I wish I'd never met him in the first place. |
| 0:52.3 | Was it an error of judgement, sir, or was it more than that? |
| 0:55.6 | And it's that relationship that brought his time as our ambassador in Washington to a very abrupt |
| 1:00.7 | end. |
| 1:01.5 | This is the third time. |
| 1:02.9 | He's been unceremoniously dumped from politics, none of which is to say he doesn't have |
| 1:08.0 | the skills or charm to succeed. |
| 1:09.7 | He's been a backroom strategist, |
| 1:11.3 | a minister, a political consultant, even an EU trade commissioner. I last encountered him |
| 1:16.6 | during the 2010 election campaign after he'd been brought back by Gordon Brown. The journalists |
... |
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