The Duran Podcast - Starmer knew all about Mandelson

Episode Date: March 15, 2026

Starmer knew all about Mandelson

All right, Alexander, let's do an update on what is happening in the UK with Kier Stommer and Mandelson and the Epstein files. I believe we've had an additional investigation that was conducted in the UK, connected to Mandelson's hiring and his connection to Epstein. and all roads lead back to Stommer. Is that a correct summary of what's going on? It is a correct summary, but let me supplement and explain exactly what has happened. If you can remember about, well, about a month ago, there was a big crisis. It became clear that Mandelson had been deeply involved with Stammer, with, sorry, with Epstein, that he'd been supplying Epstein with classified government documents,

that he'd been receiving money from Epstein, all of these things. And in fact, Mandelson is now under criminal investigation, and he's been arrested, and he's facing possible prosecution for misconduct of public office. So this created a huge scandal, and over the course of it, Stama had to sack or ask for the resignation of his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, implying that it was somehow all Morgan McSweeney's fault. Morgan McSweeney published a letter of resignation, which I passed very carefully, both on a program we did at the time and in a program I did on my channel.

I pointed out that Morgan McSweeney basically said that Stama was implicated in the decision to appoint Mandelson to the post of ambassador, British ambassador to Washington, up to his ear tips, that he was even more deeply implicated, more deeply implicated, in fact, than Morgan McSweeney was, even though it was Morgan McSweeney, who was being forced to lead the government. I said that this is an unexploded bomb. and over the last two days, that unexploded bomb has partially exploded in exactly the way that I said. Now, in order to understand what has happened, it's important to explain what Stama's defense to his decision to appoint Mandelson to the post of British ambassador to Washington. has been. Stama has said that Mandelson lied, that Mandelson denied his, the extent or the duration of his connection to Epstein, that when Starrma took the decision to appoint Mandelson, British ambassador, he trusted what Mandelson was saying, which already I

find extraordinary, given Mandelson's prior reputation, that it was, in other words, misled by Mandelson's lies. He didn't realize how deeply involved Mandelson actually was with Epstein and the implication was that if he had known, he would not have appointed Mandelson, British ambassador to Washington. Well, I said, based on what McSweeney said, the documents, and this is the document done. There's been an investigation by a committee of MPs. They've insisted on seeing all of the documents leading up to Mandelson's appointment. They released some of these documents, not yet all of them.

They released some of these documents two days ago. And sure enough, what do we find? We find a memo to Stama from the British Civil Service. Mandelson is deeply involved with Epstein. He is more deeply involved with Epstein than he is saying. He continued to meet with Epstein well after Epstein's first conviction, his only conviction, in fact, for having relations with an underaged girl. he stayed in in Epstein's house in New York

whilst Epstein was imprisoned and this is a very high-risk appointment of Mandelson to the Post of British Ambassador and there are major reputational risks

if the Prime Minister decides to go ahead with it. In other words, regardless of whatever lies Mandelson might have said, and we'll come to that in a moment, the fact is that Stama had all the information he needed, put in front of him by the civil service, before he made the appointment,

all about Mandelson, all about the information, or the full information, or at least a lot of information, about the depths of Mandelson's connections with Epstein. He chose to disregard it and decided to go ahead and appointed Prime Minister. to Washington. Ambassador, Ambassador. Ambassador, Ambassador to Washington.

Now, I think there's something, a few other things to say. It turns out that the decision to appoint Mandelson to this post had been made before all of the vetting procedures had taken place and not just been made, but had been publicly already announced, which, of course, put enormous pressure on the civil servants to give Mandelson, you know, a clean bill of health and all of that. And it also turns out that Mandelson was given a very high-level briefing before he cleared the vetting process. In other words, before he became ambassador, he was given access to highly classified information. Of course, we're not told what that information is before the vetting

process had even, in fact, started. And it also turns out that this famous meeting in which Mandelson was actually asked about his relationships with Einstein, the one at which he's supposed to have told lies, he was actually questioned by two of his best friends, two of Mandelson's own best friends, Morgan Buxweeney, and another person who has a long historic friendship with Mandelson. So, I mean, this is all a pro forma vetting process. There's no doubt at all that Starman knew all about Mandelson's connections to Epstein and decided to appoint Mandelson ambassador regardless of that. So there it is. Why was it so important to get Mandelson to the US? What do you think? Well, that I must be a reason why Mandelson had to be ambassador.

to the US. And as you said, everything, the vetting and everything was already pre-approved and it was already done. Why was it so important to get him there? Well, the reason is very simple. They wanted to give him an official position within the British government so that he could access formally British government papers and participate in governmental decisions in London. Why? Why? Why is it so important to give him these things? I'll tell you in a moment. But I mean, the story that we needed this man with all these vital skills because he was able to smooth to all of these things with Donald Trump. Don't pay any attention to that. Mandelson was flying to London.

Constantly, he was meeting ministers. He was appointing other ministers. He was advising on who to sack ministers. The reality was that to all intents and purposes, Mandelson was Deputy Prime Minister of the UK. He was a central figure in the government. He could not be appointed directly to the government. He could not be made a cabinet minister. He could not be given a formal cabinet position

because of his reputation and the previous scandals attached with him, which of course include his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, just a second. They needed, however, to give him some kind of official position so that he would have access to government papers. And that's why they made him ambassador to Washington. It was the obvious way to get round the problem, and that's why it was done. That's, of course, my view, but I am quite sure of it. It makes sense.

Absolutely. But why? Why is he so important? Is he this great decision-maker? Is he this great strategic thinker? I mean, why is it so important to get him in the loop, to give him documents, to give him power so that he can influence policy? Yeah. It's a question which anybody in the political system in Britain would say answers itself.

Mandelson has been an absolutely key figure in British politics and in Labour Party politics since the mid-1980s. He basically was the person who picked Stama to become prime minister, to become leader of the Labour Party. Mandelson is the person who basically shaped Stama's government. It set out its whole course and direction. Morgan McSweeney, who was Stama's chief of staff, was a protégé of Mandelsohn's and a close political ally of Mandelson's. Starrma is Mandelson's project, ultimately. I mean, that's the way to understand this. And I would just add, by the way, that as we now know, Mandelson was the key figure

in organizing the Remain campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum. He was giving advice to David Cameron, and he was the key figure in the second. You remember all that campaign for a second referendum that played such a big part in the Brexit war? We discussed it at the time. We did many programs about it. Madelson was a key figure in all of that.

So we're talking about one of the most important, one of the most powerful figures in Labour Party politics. He played also, by the way, an instrumental role in undermining Jeremy Corbyn, the previous leader of the Labour Party. So it's completely understandable why there would be a desire to give him this pivotal position in the government and why it was done. By the way, there is one absolutely critical document which has not been released so far. And that is the document in which Mandelson actually gave his answers to these various questions he was put about his connections to Epstein and in which he's supposed to have lied. The reason they've held that document back is because supposedly of this police investigation which is underway, about which I have my own suspicions which we've discussed in previous programs. Final question, any connection to Blair, Mandelson and Blair, and what's this mean for Stammer going forward? Mandelson is a very close political ally and personal friend of Tommy Blazers.

Mandelson is the unofficial or was the unofficial leader of the Blair rights within the Labour Party after Blair left the scene. Well, actually, that's not true. Blair is the unofficial leader of the Blair rights in the Labor Party. Does Blair get along with Stamer? Sort of. I mean, he's never been hugely enthusiastic about him. But everybody knows that Mandelson has been the key person who's, you know, the bridge between Blair and Stamer. Blair, by the way, has still not said anything about the scandal.

So what does this mean for, for O.A. to Kier Stammer? Well, that's he's incredibly lucky, isn't he? Because he's got a war gang on in the Middle East, all the attention is on that. And nobody's really interested at the moment in this scam. Well, actually, I will take that back. I think a lot of people across the country are still very interested in this scandal. And it is worth saying that yesterday, this was the big news in the British media. I mean, it was the Mandelson scandal. not the situation in the Middle East. But of course, Stama can talk about the Middle East. He can talk about the situation. He can talk about the dynamic action. He's going to take to control the inflation crisis that we're going to see. He's now got an excuse to move the conversation onto other topics.

Had we not had a war in the Middle East, I think this document, Revelation, would have been, disastrous with Starma and might have been the final nail in the coffin as it is, as I said, he's going to drag it out until the May elections because as I said, there's other things

people are talking about. But anyway, that's my take of this issue. He's got a couple of months. He's got a couple of weeks. He's got a couple of weeks until May. And then we'll see him. He's got, you can get through the remainder of March and April and early May

and then we'll see what happens. Okay. How does Labor look for those elections, by the way? Do you have any indication? Absolutely awful. There were opinion polls which suggested that in London, which is about a strong base as Labor still has. In London, labor will come forth. That the Labour vote is going to collapse, that the Greens are going to eat Labor's vote.

They're going to, I mean, the sort of middle class, progressive labor voters who were drawn to the, you know, who we've seen develop over the last few years, the Blairite voters, that they're going to migrate our mass to the Greens. The former working class vote to the extent that it still exists, that's going to go to reform. And the immigrant, the migrant votes are also going to go to the Greens as well. So they're going to absolutely crash. They're going to. come below the conservatives. I mean, which, by the way, if it happens in London, I mean, it's, it is absolutely an existential moment for the Labour Party. And I don't expect it's going to be better for them anywhere else. All right. Just so. We'll end the video there.

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