The Mandelson affair destroys our delusions about power
The Two Matts
The New World
4.2 • 577 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Peter Mandelson’s disgrace, writ large in the latest dump of Jeffrey Epstein files, is the gravest challenge to the credibility of the British establishment in decades. And how Keir Starmer reacts to it in the next 24 hours may well come to determine his future as PM. The degree of Mandelson’s betrayal of both his colleagues and country exposes just how open to abuse our society is by a network of immoral actors. Who is pulling the strings? And to what aim? Today, the Matts attempt to understand the scope of what is increasingly looking like the single biggest political scandal of our lifetimes.
Produced by Matt Withers
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Transcript
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| 1:16.7 | today. Now, enjoy the rest of the podcast. It's, I mean, I don't know what other words |
| 1:24.7 | to use except to say it's treachery. |
| 1:45.2 | There are people who are genuinely and justly outraged that what was in some respects a very honourable chapter in British political history is now being besmirched by, in a sense, you know, the political equipment of Kim Vilby. |
| 1:56.3 | On the upside, there is an opportunity for a demonstration of why we are different to the United States. Hello and happy Tuesday. |
| 2:04.4 | Happy Tuesday, one and all. |
| 2:05.9 | Matt, we're doing this podcast ad hoc because I think this is possibly the greatest |
| 2:13.9 | parliamentary scandal of our lifetime, possibly. |
| 2:17.6 | Yeah, I'm totally of one view of that. |
| 2:21.3 | And I think sort of in real time, the story is getting worse and worse, |
| 2:26.2 | because this all flows out of the dump of three million Jeffrey Epstein-related documents |
| 2:32.5 | by the American Department of Justice on Friday. |
| 2:36.9 | And it's really hit this side of the Atlantic, of course, because of things connected to |
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