When Andrew met Mandelson
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has been poured over by the press – but what about their relationship with one another? New Times reporting reveals they met for the first time in 1999 at an NSPCC charity event, and continued a mutually advantageous relationship for a decade. So how do the people who brought them together feel about it now? And what can it tell us about how power works in the upper echelons of British society?
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Guest: Hugo Daniel, general news reporter, The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producers: Harry Stott.
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Read more: Revealed: When Andrew first met Peter Mandelson
Further listening: Starmer strikes back over Mandelson vetting scandal
Clips: Getty, The Lost Media Archive / Youtube, ITN.
Photo: Getty Images.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:06.1 | I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:09.5 | There's a certain irony to how this story begins. |
| 0:14.7 | In 1999, the NSPC, which is the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, |
| 0:21.5 | set up a big campaign, I think maybe their biggest ever, |
| 0:24.7 | which was to eradicate child cruelty within 20 years and to raise 250 million pounds. |
| 0:30.6 | That's Hugo Daniel, a news reporter at the Sunday Times. |
| 0:34.4 | He's been looking back at that NSPC campaign from the late 90s. It was a big deal, |
| 0:42.2 | backed by a slew of celebrities and featuring a famous and rather shocking TV advert. |
| 0:53.9 | It's an unlikely backdrop. You're brilliant! You're no shot of mine! |
| 0:56.1 | It's an unlikely backdrop for a friendship between two well-connected establishment figures to begin. |
| 1:04.2 | But then, this was a campaign that attracted the great and the good. |
| 1:09.4 | There was a big launch at the Theatre Royal. |
| 1:12.6 | Celebrities were there. |
| 1:14.5 | Prince Andrew was there. |
| 1:15.5 | He was the chair of the campaign. |
| 1:17.4 | He does a speech about the scourge of child abuse |
| 1:21.4 | and how he's a father of two children himself. |
| 1:25.0 | In launching this 250 million pound campaign today, I am prepared to stand firm and be counted. |
| 1:31.9 | As a father, I am a parent of young children. |
| 1:35.5 | Together, we must ensure that we take the responsibility for our actions. |
| 1:40.8 | There's other celebrities there, there's Emma Bunton, The Spice Girl, Silla Black, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tony Blair. |
... |
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