Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now, Keir Starmer is facing further pressure on his premiership. He's facing a really crucial vote today. MPs are voting on whether there should be a parliamentary inquiry into his handling of the Peter Mandelson vetting row. As all of that is happening, Morgan McSweeney is giving evidence right now in front of MPs at Westminster.
He has said that advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson was a serious error of judgment. Here he is speaking at the Foreign Affairs Committee.
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.
Chapter 2: What pressure is Keir Starmer facing regarding his premiership?
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.
And is Morgan McSweeney there, the cork man?
Chapter 3: What is the significance of the parliamentary inquiry into the Mandelson vetting row?
George Parker is with us from the Financial Times. That's the first time I've heard Morgan McSweeney speak, George. Has he had anything interesting to say?
I think he's a component of the Spangali figure, hasn't he, at Westminster? And as you say, he's worked behind the scenes. And until last week when he was at a conference in Kiev, I don't think anyone really had heard him speak. And I think he's been sort of given quite a calm account of his extraordinary role at the heart of the number 10 operation.
I mean, you heard there in that clip, what he's basically saying is that he did make the recommendation for Mandelson to get this job. He thought that Mandelson would be the right person to deal with Donald Trump. He said that if Kamala Harris had won the American presidential election, he didn't think that Mandelson would have gone to Washington.
But given the fact that Trump was there, this extraordinary politician, they needed someone with extraordinary talents to go out and be up against him.
Now, you are writing today about this three pronged challenge that Keir Starmer is facing today.
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Chapter 4: What did Morgan McSweeney say about his recommendation for Mandelson?
That's one of the prongs, isn't it? What Morgan McSweeney had to say. The other one was Sir Philip Barton, who gave evidence this morning. He was the former head of the or is the former head of the Foreign Office. So what was he being asked about this morning?
Well, this is all about the appointment of Peter Mandelson and the circumstances around his appointment. And Philip Barton was the head of the Foreign Office at the time when the initial announcement was made. He basically said he was given about a week's notice of this appointment coming down the track.
And he admitted, basically, that if Mandelson had failed the vetting process after he'd been announced as the preferred candidate to be the ambassador to Washington, there would have been a crisis on everyone's hands. The King had already been told that Mandelson was going. Donald Trump had already been told that Mandelson was was going.
There were no contingency plans in place in the event that Mandelson failed the vetting process. So it was interesting evidence, but I'd say that on that front at least, I don't think Keir Starmer's got anything particularly to worry about. It basically confirmed that although the Foreign Office felt under pressure to speed up a decision on Mandelson's vetting,
They weren't under any pressure to ignore red flags being raised as part of the vetting process, which has always been Keir Starmer's contention.
But in about an hour's time, he's going to face the opposition parties who really want him to face a formal inquiry into this entire Mandelson affair. And I know that the Labour Party mandarins in the background have been shoring up support for Keir Starmer. So they're clearly nervous about this.
Yeah, very nervous about this. This is the kind of measure that the Labour Party, when they were in opposition under Keir Starmer's leadership, used to use against Boris Johnson. The sleaze inquiry by the official parliamentary ethics watchdog. They deployed it against Boris Johnson over the Partygate scandal, and now the tables are being turned on Keir Starmer.
The Tories are trying to get this affair referred to something called the Privileges Committee. There'll be a vote on that later on today. The Liberal Democrats and other opposition party are also supporting it. However, as you say, Starmer's office are very worried about it. They've been pulling out all the stops.
Starmer went to meet the Parliamentary Labour Party last night to plead with them for their support. Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister, has been wheeled out in defence of Keir Starmer.
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Chapter 5: How did the Foreign Office respond to the Mandelson appointment process?
My sense on this is that although it's going to be a difficult debate for the Prime Minister, I think he's going to win the vote eventually. And I think this formal investigation won't be launched this afternoon.
He also has this challenge we read about in highly entertaining terms, it has to be said, for weeks now, potentially from Angela Rayner and or Andy Burnham. What's the status of all of that?
Well, the context of all this is there's a very, very difficult set of elections coming up for the Labour Party on the 7th of May in Scotland, Wales, English councils. We're expecting the Labour Party to get an absolute hammering annihilated in some parts of the country. Then the question arises, is the Labour Party going to say enough's enough and pull the plug on Keir Starmer?
The balance of the party is on what you would call the soft left side of the party and the two obvious candidates on that side of the party are Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham. The problem is neither of them are ready to run for different reasons. Angela Rayner, because she has an unsettled tax dispute with the HM Revenue and Customs, which is a
Andy Burnham, of course, is the mayor of Greater Manchester and isn't an MP, so isn't eligible to stand. So, although the Labour Party will be in a state of high anxiety after the results come in on May the 7th, the question is, will they be prepared to try to start the process to remove Keir Starmer when their preferred candidates are out of the running?
I think that's the big question that nobody knows the answer to.
I thought it was interesting that the MP, Peter Dowd, wasn't offering any comment when it was put to him that he might vacate his seat for Andy Burnham to have an easy-ish run. What do you read into that?
Andy Burnham's people are certainly very confident that a seat will become available for him to contest in a by-election so that he's in place come the autumn, ready to mount some sort of leadership contest and, you know, There is talk about finding another seat for him somewhere in the North West.
You remember last time he tried to stand, he was blocked by Keir Starmer's allies on Labour's ruling National Executive Committee. Well, I don't think that's going to happen next time. It just feels like that moment has passed. If Andy Burnham wants to stand, I think he'll be allowed to stand. He then has to win
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Chapter 6: What challenges does Keir Starmer face from opposition parties?
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