Labour minister skewered as BBC's Jon Kay issues furious three-word Mandelson takedown

Jon Kay issued a damning verdict over Keir Starmer's appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to the US. The BBC Breakfast presenter was joined by Baroness Jacqui Smith on Monday's (February 9) programme, just one day after Starmer's Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney announced he was resigning. Questions remain over whether the prime minister will do the same.

This follows a week of intense backlash over his appointment of Mandelson, after it emerged that Starmer was aware of his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. During the interview, Kay highlighted that Smith was frequently mentioning Epstein's victims, leading him to ask: "The prime minister and Morgan McSweeney knew about Epstein's victims last summer when they appointed Peter Mandelson, his friend, to that job in Washington.

"Why weren't they thinking and talking about the victims then?"

When Smith claimed that Mandelson "lied about the extent of his relationship" with Epstein, Kay raged: "We all knew!"

He added: "The prime minister knew he was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein's."

Smith only doubled down on her claims, responding: "Peter Mandelson lied about the extent of the depth of the support that he provided for Jeffrey Epstein. When that became evident, last September, the prime minister sacked Peter Mandelson.

"He sacked him in the middle of the night and he's taken responsibility both having made the wrong decision in appointing him, and also now, in ensuring that in the future, public appointments are stronger in terms of the way in which they are carried out and that focus on tackling violence against women and girls remains at the heart of the government that he's leading."

Kay then questioned if Smith would have made the same decision in appointing Mandelson, despite knowing that he was the friend of a convicted paedophile.

She hit back: "There's plenty of us who are able, with the benefit of hindsight, to say..."

Interjecting, the BBC host fumed: "It's not hindsight. They knew at the time. You knew at the time."

The squirming minister replied: "No. no. What was known at the time was that Peter Mandelson had an ongoing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. What was not known at the time was the extent and nature of Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. When it became clear, the prime minister fired him."