{"id":273574,"date":"2026-02-04T13:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/273574\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T13:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:08:09","slug":"mandelson-lied-repeatedly-to-my-team-and-i-regret-appointing-him-as-ambassador-starmer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/273574\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandelson lied repeatedly to my team and I regret appointing him as ambassador, Starmer says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"An extraordinary PMQs as Starmer makes feelings of betrayal clearpublished at 12:57 GMT<\/p>\n

12:57 GMT<\/p>\n

\"\"Chris Mason
Political editor<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer is a prime minister who is wary of superlatives and almost preternaturally inclined not to show emotion in public. <\/p>\n

This is what made Prime Minister\u2019s Questions today so extraordinary \u2014 the volley after volley of superlatives of disgust and betrayal and the clear anger in Starmer\u2019s tone.<\/p>\n

He \u201clied, lied and lied again\u201d<\/a> claimed the prime minister. <\/p>\n

There was a \u201clitany of deceit,\u201d his behaviour was \u201cbeyond infuriating\u201d and Mandelson had betrayed his party, parliament and the country, he added. <\/p>\n

The government is desperate to bury Mandelson under a pile of opprobrium visible from space \u2014 and that anger and sense of betrayal is authentic. I have heard it face to face and over the phone from Labour figures in the last day or so. <\/p>\n

But the question remains – and will be repeated no doubt many times in the chamber this afternoon – what did the prime minister know and when about Lord Mandelson\u2019s conduct, what questions were asked before his appointment to Washington, and what wasn\u2019t? <\/p>\n

This is why Mandelson\u2019s conduct still matters for the prime minister\u2019s reputation. <\/p>\n

It could yet be weeks or longer before we see some of the documents the government is now saying it will publish about the process that led to Lord Mandelson\u2019s appointment as the ambassador in Washington. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An extraordinary PMQs as Starmer makes feelings of betrayal clearpublished at 12:57 GMT 12:57 GMT Chris MasonPolitical editor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-273574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}