Juliet Rieden

But it's this idea that

his judgment was so off-kilter.

Why would he want to give this appointment to Peter Mandelson?

You know, he obviously hoped that Mandelson's contacts across business and politics, as well as his very clear ability to charm, would help him in what was a very difficult relationship with Donald Trump.

And surely, at the beginning, that seemed to happen.

Trump warned to Mandelson, and the two of them seem to be developing what has sort of been called a special relationship between the UK and the US over the past few months, but at the moment is looking incredibly shaky.

Well, I think it does.

And those tentacles are extraordinary.

I mean, the information that came out and continues to come out in the Jeffrey Epstein files is extraordinary.

And I think what is most extraordinary for me looking on is that those files have been there for more than a decade now.

And the American authorities did not deem it important enough to share that information with

For instance, the British government, you know, as soon as the British government and British MPs and the British police saw that information, they have started investigating it at many levels, obviously with Lord Mandelson in this case.

And of course, we know with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as well.

The sharks are starting to circle, but I don't think anyone's got their ducks in a row now, to mix many metaphors there.

But I don't think anyone is ready to step in and make a play for that job of prime minister.

But certainly, in the court of public opinion...

Sir Keir Starmer has got a lot of questions to answer and I think his credibility has been hit very hard by Lord Mandelson, these revelations about Lord Mandelson.