Enda Brady

You know, that's what, over five days, they're wasting $80 million on this.

And it's not going away and it's not getting any better.

Now with deep divisions emerging over the appointment... And he feels not only has Starmer thrown him under the bus, he's reversed over him a couple of times as well.

So there's so much to get into on this one, Tessa.

So it all goes back to the appointment of Mandelson as UK's ambassador to America.

This was Christmas 2024.

And it was a lovely Christmas bonus and gift for Peter Mandelson, a final political act of an extraordinary career, if you like.

He formally took up that job in February of 2025.

following the completion of the security vetting process, which is why it's all in the news now.

But later last year, early September, he was sacked by the Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Emails had emerged, this big tranche of emails from the so-called Epstein files, and they shed new information on just how deep a friendship he had enjoyed

with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

And then while it's back in the spotlight now, in March of this year, just a few weeks ago, government documents were released revealing details about Mandelson's initial appointment and a process that one senior government advisor said had been weirdly rushed.

So I think there's two things here.

First of all, the Trump administration.

People have been scratching their heads in London, in Paris, in Berlin, Rome.

How do we deal with this Trump administration?

And the feeling was that because Mandelson was such a big political beast, he'd been in the room with, say, George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Bush.

serious players, big hitters, and not being phased by their personalities or how they operate, that Mandelson would be the ideal appointment.

Someone who could just look them in the eye, crack on with business, represent the UK to the best of his ability.