Morgan McSweeney

I was talking to someone who was put out to do the morning round.

You know, the minister who had to put the flak jacket and the tin hat on.

Which one are you talking about?

Well, you know, so anyway, there are various people who are asked, do you know how Keir Starmer's doing?

How is he?

You know, how's he feeling?

And they hadn't spoken to Keir Starmer.

And there are an awful lot of people who you think would be politically very, very close to him.

And he doesn't speak to people.

And, you know, so it's not like there is a band of brothers or band of sisters or whatever who are there to kind of get through this together.

It feels like he's I mean, obviously, it's a lonely job being prime minister and the buck stops with you, et cetera, et cetera.

But he doesn't seem like he has that coterie of tight political mates who are there rooting for him.

The appointment of Mandelson as ambassador was a serious error of judgment.

I advised the Prime Minister in support of that appointment and I was wrong to do so.

It is also important, however, to distinguish between what I did do and what I did not do.

What I did do was make a recommendation based on my judgment that Mandelson's experience, relationships and political skills could serve the national interest in Washington at an important moment.

That judgment was a mistake.

What I did not do was oversee national security vetting, ask officials to ignore procedures, request that steps should be skipped, or communicate explicitly or implicitly that checks should be cleared at all costs.

I would never have considered that acceptable.

These processes are in place to protect our national security.