The Morgan McSweeney Evidence
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, MPs have voted that Keir Starmer should not face an inquiry into whether he misled Parliament over the appointment of Lord Mandelson.
MPs vote 335 to 223 against a Tory-led motion. During the debate, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it's "very obvious" Starmer told the Commons things that were "not correct". No 10 accused the conservatives of a "desperate political stunt.
Adam, Joe and Alex react to the vote. They also look back on Morgan McSweeney, a former chief of staff to Starmer, giving his account of the Mandelson appointment. In it McSweeney said he made a “serious mistake” in advising the PM to appoint the former US ambassador.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Hello, lots of different strands of the Peter Mandelson vetting story converged in Westminster today. |
| 0:12.6 | Can a strand converge? Well, I guess they can now. |
| 0:15.5 | At the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, chaired by Dame Emily Thornbury, |
| 0:18.7 | we had Philip Barton, who was the predecessor |
| 0:22.4 | to Soroli Robbins as the chief civil servant in the Foreign Office giving evidence. And then |
| 0:27.5 | box office this Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister's former Chief of Staff and somebody who's |
| 0:33.0 | issued the spotlight, was very much in the spotlight, for about two hours. Then we had this vote |
| 0:39.7 | on whether Keir Starrmer, the Prime Minister should be referred to the Privileges Committee, |
| 0:43.9 | which had been triggered by the opposition parties. And then we got an update on what is |
| 0:48.7 | happening with all those documents about Peter Mandelson's appointment that are being released |
| 0:52.8 | as part of the so-called humble address, |
| 0:55.3 | that parliamentary maneuver triggered by the Conservatives a few months ago. |
| 0:59.2 | So there were lots of things to talk about and it was a very, very interesting day |
| 1:03.2 | that involved watching hours and hours and hours of what was going on in Parliament. |
| 1:07.4 | But luckily, we had a top team of people doing that for you on this episode of |
| 1:11.3 | Newscast. Newscast from the BBC. Humanity's next great voyage begins. We are in the midst |
| 1:18.0 | of a rupture. Nostalgia will not bring back the old order. Six-seven. Yeah. It's supposed to be |
| 1:24.3 | me as a doctor. Daddy has also a special connotation. Oh, la-la-la. Thinking about it like a pantor helped. Do we play music now? What do we do? Hello, it's Adam in the Newscast studio. And it's Alex in the Westminster studio. And it's Joe Pike in a different studio in Westminster. But in the same building on the same floor. This is true. Just to add confusion to a very confusing day. |
| 1:45.1 | So we're recording this episode of Newscast on Tuesday evening at 5 to 7. |
| 1:48.7 | And as all aficionados of the House of Commons will know, this is prime voting time on a midweek day in the House of Commons. |
| 1:55.6 | So Joe, we just had this vote on the Tory motion to refer Keir Starrmer to the Privileges Committee so they could |
... |
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