The Week: When Keir Starmer Sacked Peter Mandelson

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.4 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we look back at a very difficult week for Keir Starmer and the Government. Lord Mandelson’s sacking as UK ambassador to the US comes only days after the Prime Minister reshuffled his cabinet and the resignation of his deputy, Angela Rayner. Starmer sacked Lord Mandelson after new information emerged about his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein – a week before US President Trump’s visit to the UK. Where does this string of trouble leave the party? And, why is there so much focus on one of Keir Starmer’s main advisors?

Adam is joined in the studio by Sienna Rodgers, Deputy Editor at The House Magazine and Patrick Maguire, Chief Political Commentator at the Times.

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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Julia Webster and Adriana Urbano. The social producer was Liv Facey. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:28.3	Hello.
0:29.1	Well, it feels like everyone is back from their summer holidays.
0:32.1	Everyone's gone back to school.
0:33.6	Everyone's back at work.
0:35.1	The news is just as busy as it's always been, and we thought we'd
0:39.2	return to the normal newscast calendar. Our TV show will be back on BBC One next Thursday after
0:46.5	question time. And every Friday, we're going to do that traditional newscast thing of looking back
0:51.9	at the week and some of the big events that happened and just
0:54.7	seeing what we can learn now that some of the franticness of the breaking news has passed. So that's
1:00.2	what you'll hear on this episode of Newscast. Newscast from the BBC. Fat boy sliver me in the
1:06.2	classroom doing our violin lessons. I was the tappletail in the class. Can I have an apology, please?
1:10.6	I trust almost nobody. That daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no salulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio, and we're going to look back at some of the big events at Westminster this week.
1:28.3	Of course, the biggest one was Kirst Armour, the Prime Minister, sacking Lord Mandelson, Peter Mandelson, as the ambassador to Washington, D.C.
1:36.3	All of this happening on the eve of Donald Trump's state visit to the UK next week.
1:41.8	What is intriguing about this story is where it has gone. You're hearing lots of
1:46.6	whispers in Westminster about the role of a guy called Morgan McSweeney. He's not exactly a household
	...

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