00:00I am sorry. Sorry for having believed Mandelson's lies and appointed him.
00:06Pressure is mounting on Keir Starmer over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as the US ambassador
00:11after fresh revelations in the Epstein files.
00:14In a dramatic exchange in the House of Commons, Starmer was forced to admit that the documents used to vet Mandelson
00:19did contain details of his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
00:23Now MPs, including from Starmer's own Labour Party, want to see those documents.
00:28The key question is what did the Prime Minister know and when about the extent of the connection
00:33between Epstein and Mandelson before Mandelson was appointed to the top job in Washington?
00:38Messages contained within the 3 million documents just released by the US Department of Justice
00:42give a sense of just how close Epstein and Mandelson remained even after the financier pleaded guilty
00:48to child sex trafficking charges in 2008.
00:51Those messages appear to show that Mandelson was sharing with Epstein confidential government information
00:56and commercially useful insights, including when Mandelson was serving as the business secretary
01:01in Gordon Brown's government.
01:03The Metropolitan Police has now opened a criminal investigation into Mandelson's conduct.
01:08Starmer sacked Mandelson in September after fresh details emerged about his connection with Epstein.
01:14The Prime Minister maintains that Mandelson lied to his team throughout the vetting process,
01:18but thorny questions about Starmer's judgment remain.
01:21At a time when Starmer's grip over his party appears weak and there is speculation about
01:25a potential leadership challenge in the future, the Prime Minister can ill afford a further erosion
01:30of his authority with his own MPs.
Comments