Prime Minister’s Questions today highlighted Keir Starmer’s weakness, and not just when it comes to Peter Mandelson. The Prime Minister made clear in his first answer to Kemi Badenoch that ‘Mandelson betrayed our country, our parliament and my party’. He added: ‘He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein before and during his tenure as ambassador. I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near government.’ He then listed the actions he had taken to strip Mandelson of his title, to remove him from the Privy council, and to refer material to the Metropolitan Police. 

Badenoch replied that she had asked Starmer a very specific question, and repeated it: whether he knew that Mandelson had continued his friendship with Epstein. She pointed out that in January 2024, an FT journalist had informed Starmer that Mandelson had stayed in the financier’s house even after his conviction for child prostitution. She asked: ‘Did the Prime Minister conveniently forget this fact, or did he........

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