Edward Luce

Well, he's been a sort of storied figure on the U.K.

left for decades.

He was the co-architect with Tony Blair, of Tony Blair's New Labour third-wave politics.

close ties with the Clintons.

And so he's considered to be one of the great figures of the British Labour Party, but he's also one of the most controversial figures of modern British politics because of his questionable ethics.

Three times now, he's been fired.

So it turns out that in 2008, during the peak of the global financial crisis, Mandelson, who was then serving the British Labour government led by Gordon Brown, was in contact with Epstein and in fact passing on to Epstein, privileged insider,

information from within Gordon Brown's government about a number of market-moving, market-sensitive things.

So this is considered to be in breach of several laws and one of the biggest political scandals in many years to have hit Britain.

Keir Starmer's been in trouble for many, many months.

His party's opinion poll is rating way below Nigel Farage's pro-MAGA reform party in the opinion polls.

He's got a massive majority and yet seems to be going nowhere with it.

And his appointment of Mandelson as Britain's ambassador, in spite of knowing of at least some of Mandelson's former association with Jeffrey Epstein, is just another stick with which to beat his government.

It shows lack of judgment.

It shows the sort of failure to take control that Starmer, with such a big majority so recently...

had been promising to deliver.

So it's potentially the end of his prime ministership.

Yes, he did.

I mean, Gordon Brown is furious.

He feels betrayed by Mandelson.