The Mandelson files released
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
On Monday, the government released more than a thousand documents related to Peter Mandelson’s controversial appointment as ambassador to the US. It’s one of the largest publications of secret documents to parliament in UK history. The files contain insights into how Mandelson operated and what he, and ministers, really thought of the prime minister. So what does all this mean for the embattled Keir Starmer?
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Guest: Steven Swinford, political editor, The Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producers: Micaela Arneson, Sophie McNulty.
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Read more: Mandelson files release: ministers prepare for day of humiliation
Further listening: When Andrew met Mandelson
Clips: Parliament.tv.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:10.3 | In November 2024, the Labour Grandee and veteran of many a political scandal, Peter Mandelson, |
| 0:18.6 | was angling to become the British ambassador in Washington. |
| 0:22.9 | In a pleading letter to the then Foreign Secretary David Lamy, |
| 0:26.5 | he promised that the government would never regret appointing him. |
| 0:32.3 | Little more than a year later, the Prime Minister was kicking himself. |
| 0:37.7 | I regret appointing him. If I knew then, what I know now, he would never have been anywhere |
| 0:44.0 | near government. After details emerged about Mandelson's links to the convicted paedophile |
| 0:49.5 | Geoffrey Epstein, he experienced yet another spectacular fall from grace. Sacked and still the subject |
| 0:58.0 | to the police investigation, Lord Mandelson is once more at the heart of a Westminster scandal. |
| 1:05.0 | The documents we are publishing today are one of the largest government publications ever laid |
| 1:10.1 | before this house. |
| 1:12.0 | Yesterday, the government was forced to publish more than 1,500 pages, |
| 1:17.9 | showing Peter Mandelson's communications with ministers before and during his tenure as ambassador. |
| 1:26.0 | Stephen Swinford, the Times political editor, has been digging through the documents. |
| 1:30.9 | What you have here is the entirety of number 10, senior cabinet ministers, all corresponding, |
| 1:36.6 | all closely associated with Mandelson, fawning to congratulate him when he's appointed, |
| 1:41.9 | communicating with him in very indiscreet terms of a daily basis. |
| 1:45.7 | That fawning admiration will now be a source of excruciating embarrassment. |
| 1:51.7 | But it's not just the ministers who are regularly contacting Mandelson, who will be shamed |
| 1:56.5 | by the exchanges. The Prime Minister doesn't come out of them well either. |
| 2:01.7 | Mandelson says that Keir Stama lacks verve, he lacks authority, he needs to behave in a more |
... |
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