Labour Votes Down Badenoch's Mandelson Stunt

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]Hi, my name is Phil. I like to talk about politics. So, I thought I'd just round off with some of the more relevant news of yesterday on the running Mandlesson saga as Parliament ends its first session of this Labor government in a complete shambles quite frankly and gets ready for a second that really needs to give them a platform to stay in government longer than currently looks likely. First of all, apologies for the length of this video. Actually, could be a record. A lot happened yesterday and because it's basically a party political s show, there's absolutely no evidence it has much public interest. I can't do a whole series of videos on it. It'll be neither good for views nor is it a serious political issue. So, I'll just take care of the key points all at once, so get some toast and settle in. You're going to be here a while or until you click off. But I do warn you, finishing videos early makes panda cubs very sad.

[00:00:50]Been a lot of research on it. Your decision. I'd also intended to put this out yesterday, but they just wouldn't stop making the same two poison points over and over again, hour after hour after hour. The debate, if you could call it that, when only two things were said, went on longer video. But anyway, what actually happened? Well, there was evidence to the select committee from two key people. Then Badenox motion to start a privileges investigation into Karmama, which the government whipped a vote against. Whether that's right or not is a moot point. There is no convention for votes like this to be kept free. At the end of the day, it was an opposition motion. So why shouldn't the government whip against it? It was entirely a political decision. Why did Tory MPs vote for the investigation into Boris Johnson? Because there was genuine evidence against him. The public knew it. The public were outraged. Why did most Labour MPs vote to stop the investigation yesterday? Because it was bollocks and the public don't even know what's going on. One way or the other, what they're pissed off about is their lives still being thrown into chaos and seemingly nobody calming things down.

[00:01:52]Terms of my view, I think this Mandelen SC saga is a Westminster bubble issue.

[00:01:57]As such, I don't think whipping against the investigation causes as much damage as if they'd allowed it to go ahead and feed the Tory media easy headlines, which would be used to overshadow the news of Labour's policy program, which will be their main focus after the elections. I mean, you can see how desperate some of the media were. Even the Guardian went with the headline, "Starma sees off major Labor rebellion."

[00:02:20]Oh, that sounds spicy. How many Labour MPs then? 15. 15 Labor MPs. That was the rebellion. That's a major rebellion, is it? 15 out of over 400. It wasn't even all the usual rebels voting for it. But whatever terrible headline Starmmer is going to have to face over the next month, and frankly, until he's finally put out of his misery, it's not going to be on this for much longer. The bottom line is that Labour is going to have a disastrous election campaign next week.

[00:02:47]They need to get on the front foot immediately afterwards with the King's speech and economic plans to counter the Iran war. They need to starve the media of the oxygen of sideshows as much as possible. This attempted investigation was frivolous. A vote shouldn't have even taken place. But Labour absolutely needed to create the environment for journalists to have the space to report on their new policy program whether they want to or not. So I agreed with the decision to whip against it. The MPs who blathered on about transparency, we need transparency. I'm sure he's innocent, but we need transparency. Talking out their asses, there already is transparency. The documents and witnesses have gone to the foreign affairs select committee. The privileges committee cannot possibly examine anything or ask any questions of anyone which the select committee is already doing. The investigation would provide not more transparency but less because it would distract from the new parliamentary session. Basically all the stuff that the public's actually interested in as well as the existing investigation and everyone knows Star would be exonerated because the proof of that has already been published. Even some of the MPs voting for the investigation said he was clearly going to be found not guilty. But oh s it's fun, isn't it? It was better than listening to Lee Anderson talking about housing, which was what was on the agenda if that hadn't have happened. But as I'll discuss, this was really it was a no-win situation for Stara, no matter what he did, and it was a no- lose situation for Badnock, no matter what she did. But the least bad option was crushing this now, no matter how it looks to some people. But before we had the debate and the vote, we had testimony from for the select committee on Mandlesson's appointment, which was also relevant to the debate. We had Philip Barton, civil servant. He used to be the permanent under secretary at the foreign office. He took questions. Kem Badno's main justification for her call for a privileges committee investigation to K star similar to the particate investigation Boris Johnson which they're trying to link it to was that Star misled MPs about the proper procedures been followed regarding Mandlesson's appointment. The media seized on the idea that Barton uh couldn't say the procedures had been followed throughout. But what he actually said was all the procedures that he was involved with were followed properly. He just made it clear he didn't have oversight over the entire process. We can't he obviously can't attest to something he wasn't witness to. But when you collect all of the evidence provided by all of the civil servants plus the documentary evidence which has been released including some private correspondents from Star the day before. All of it says actually yeah the procedures were followed. What has emerged from the select committee investigation so far is that the procedures were followed but that the procedures weren't good enough in this case. This is why Barton said he approved of the moves to improve the procedures. If the procedures hadn't been followed, he wouldn't have said that. He would have said the procedures are fine. We just need people to bloody well follow them in future. But they're not fine. The idea that the prime minister can make an appointment but have the fact vetting had been failed concealed from them is ridiculous. Also, the main political adviser, Morgan Mcweeny, pushing for the appointment should not have had any role in the affair. That is also ridiculous. Nobody thinks those are parts of a good system.

[00:06:01]This is why it's so unbelievable that this really was the system. If you go back a couple of weeks, people thought Starman must have lied because it's batshit that this would be the system.

[00:06:09]Yet, this is exactly what's happened.

[00:06:11]Nobody denies it now. It's also why eyebrows were raised at the speaker Lindseay Hy for allowing Badno's vote to go ahead. He even said as he gave permission, he's not supposed to allow frivolous votes, but it was frivolous.

[00:06:25]It's not just that there isn't any evidence that Starmmer personally ignored procedures. There is proof positive that the procedures were all followed and that Starmmer was deliberately allowed to inadvertently mislead MPs. I mean, you know, when Starmmer told MPs that the vetting cleared Mandolson, at that point, Ollie Robbins must have known that Starmer has misled Parliament, he was the one who kept the information from number 10. Why didn't he at that point go, "Oh uh, I need to tell you about this. Why is nobody asking that?" In my opinion, Hy didn't allow the vote because he thought it was the right thing to do, but because he's been burned before. You remember a while ago he allowed a labor motion on Gaza to be voted ahead of the S&P's version that backfired on him big time caused a massive stink and he had to apologize. I think he didn't fancy a repeat and he thought, do you know what?

[00:07:16]This is going to be a show either way. It's Star's mess. Let him clear it up. Which is weak. But then Hy has always been a weak speaker. But as I've said before, politics is in such a nasty place now with so little respect in parliament. AC, never mind party lines, even factional lines. It's probably better to have a weak speaker than an in-your-face one who just acts as a lightning rod for criticism. Hy is the best we can hope for right now. At the end of the day, there was no tidy way to deal with this. Strictly speaking, the vote shouldn't have been allowed. But if the speaker had blocked it, he would have been accused of a stitch up. Given that the vote was going to go ahead, MPs should have voted it down comfortably.

[00:07:51]And I don't mean just Labour MPs. But such is the fragmentation of the vote now. The stakes are high for almost all political part. There are no also rans in parliament really anymore. Right and wrong doesn't come into it. This is heaping pressure on a prime minister who is mortally wounded. This is Starmmer's fault for allowing himself to sleepwalk into such a weak position. It doesn't matter that this particular issue is another confected issue. It's the fact that he's been at batting away confected issues that he's in this position. A bleeding stag does not get to complain about the wolves circling them. But before we go on to the vote itself, Mweeny also gave evidence where he accepted that his judgment had been very poor. Uh I don't think there was anything massively remarkable in his evidence other than his claim to have h to have a soul. digest by the way but I have said before my view of Mweeney is critical not as harsh as some I don't think much to many of his political views I have been absolutely scathing about the the group think he built up in down street to make sure that his views were massively amplified that is unforgivable for such a position you must have a robust range of views aired but I don't see him as a classically nasty scheming power behind the throne I saw someone who was promoted out of their depth the reason they were so influential is not because they were so Machavelian. Far from it. Mweeny doesn't seem to have read Machaveli any more than anyone else around him. What seemed to happen as far as I could see things.

[00:09:16]Starman recognized that he is not a strong political thinker or mover. That is lordable self-awareness. So he leaned heavily on someone he thought was good idea. Unfortunately for everyone involved, his political anchor of choice was someone who was also clueless. It's worth pointing out at this point that if Star had backed Sue Gray, Mandolson would never have been made ambassador.

[00:09:37]She was very much against it. In fact, she was very clear that Mandolson in general should be consigned to the dustpin of history. Another episode that shows just what a good decision it was to hire her, what a bad decision it was to remove her. Mweeny, I think, became so influential because Starmmer wanted someone to take care of the aspects of politics that he is so evidently completely disinterested in. Really, the major lesson from this Mandlesson mess is less about Mandlesson himself, more about the consequences of not taking politics seriously. Starmmer has been open for years about his disdain for political maneuvering and intrigue. He hates it. I don't blame him. Parliament is more like a den of thieves than a legislative body at times. But intrigue and nifty footwork is a necessary part of politics because it's a den of thieves. You can no more be a prime minister disinterested in political footwork than you can be a plumber disinterested in water flow. I suppose the main point of interest in Mween's evidence was that he'd already shared his messages on Mandlesson before his phone was stolen. So people thinking the theft sounds a bit convenient didn't seem to result in any messages concerning Mandlesson disappearing from the record. He did say there were some there was an autodelete function. So there would have been some gone, but they would have been gone whether his phone was nicked or not. Obviously, others will have to confirm that, but it was already ridiculous to connect the loss of the phone with any dodgy motives because it was reported stolen months before anyone would think the Mandlesson files would be looked at for 25 years or 20 years as it is now. And if the relevant messages were copied across beforehand, it's a big fat nothing burger of a story there as well. So then when the road show moved on to bad, her opening pitch was to say that the ministerial code says that ministers who mislead the house must correct the record at the earliest opportunity. She said it was obvious that what the prime minister said at the dispatch box was not correct. That is true. She said it's clear full due process was not followed.

[00:11:29]That is not correct. I can't find anyone giving evidence who said that. And many have made it explicitly clear that actually the procedures were followed.

[00:11:37]Just the procedures are rubbish. But she seemed to forget the bit about correcting the record at the earliest opportunity. Like she put major emphasis on that by making it clear. She quoted it from the ministerial code and yet it's like yes Star did correct the record and straight away as soon as he found out that the vet had been failed which is pretty much the same time the rest of us found out. He made a statement the next time he was in parliament. Ministerial code applied.

[00:12:01]What exactly was Badno's point? As always she doesn't have one. Kem Badnock is the luckiest person in politics right now. Her first year as leader of the opposition was characterized by bungle after bungle at PMQs. Starmmer was never under any pressure and it seems certain that Tory MPs would have to bin her after the 2026 elections. Now she's looking secure. Her party is second in the polls not because she's improved the Tories polling but because everyone else has gone down. You know the Labour have split their own vote all over the place and plummeted. She's also benefiting from the fact Starmmer looks down and out and she has been given an opportunity to play a leading role. None of this was by her design. It all just fell into her lap. There was no way she could lose from this. If Hy had blocked her, she crows foul. With Labour MPs voting it down, she gets to do the same thing. Plus poke at divisions due to the Labour MPs who didn't vote it down. But there weren't really many of those. So she knew no opposition MPs would vote to block it because why would they? the government is wounded and they can make capital from that and there's an election coming up. Had the vote allowed the investigation, it would have made it look like it was a credible. It never was and there's no way Starmmer would be found guilty. But the entire process would pro provide terrible headlines for Star in Labor until the verdict's delivered at which point Badnock just then says the verdict is a labor stitch.

[00:13:24]Literally an open goal for her that even she couldn't mess up. She knew opposition MPs would line up to support her because every major party except her own and Labor are looking to make major gains in these coming elections. She knew she could rely on Labour MPs to sabotage themselves because it's what backbenches frequently do when they're more interested in their own supporting clicks than the party's success. But even those usual suspects on the Labour benches who you know are loving this and desperately want to support anything which embarrasses Starmer. Even they were saying the investigation should just go ahead so we can clear his name.

[00:13:57]They weren't thinking he was guilty.

[00:13:59]They knew there's nothing in this.

[00:14:01]Finally, it's worth reflecting on just how much damage this Mandlesson appointment has caused and the paradox that neither Starman nor Mweeny ever liked him. Neither Maxweeni nor Starmmer can really complain loudly about the damage done by Mandlesson because the only reason it's doing damage is they open themselves up. They've both made very serious errors of judgment that you just can't afford in such a high pressure job. And I don't mean about the Mandlesson appointment. But it's strange to think that some characterized Mandlesson's appointment as if it were a personal favor bit cronyism. But Starmmer and Mweeny both well Starmmer disliked Mandlesson and a lot of his politics and Mweeny just disliked all of his politics quite intensely. They just thought he would be useful, a proven and experienced political winner. They didn't imagine he would cause them this much damage. I don't think anyone who even argued against his appointment thought it would tank this badly. But like I keep saying, Mandolson isn't really the cause of the damage. He may be the straw which breaks the camel's back, but not the cause. Mweeny didn't attract fire because he pushed for the appointment. He's been criticized because he was behind a level of narrow thinking in Downing Street and disastrous policies which should have been blocked at that point which sent Labour crashing in the polls. Starmer is mainly criticized not for the Mandolson appointment but for largely being an absentee prime minister. He's he's not out there banging the drum for the party. He and then when he does bang the drum it's on unpopular stuff, the winter fuel policy. He failed to turn quickly enough on the PIP moves. He alienated a lot of traditional traditionally supportive voters. Failed to change course when it should have been obvious that he was heading for the rocks.

[00:15:37]Mandlesen is just the stick with which MPs are poking him with. But the reason why it's hurting is because they're already battered and brewed from the public. I'm afraid I also have to say there is one parallel here between Star and Johnson. It's not what some claim, but it is this. And it's not really a similarity between the two or their circumstances, just a rule of politics.

[00:15:56]When Johnson was trying to hang on, I said at the time the Tory MPs thinking the difficulties would just blow over, there's still years to go before the election were deluding themselves. The scandals will never stop. I said, even if some do blow over, he will just cause more of them because that's what he does. He's a scandal factory. Something similar is true of Star. Not scandals.

[00:16:18]He's not a self-important sleas monster like Johnson, but he's still under the same political gravity. He's here because he made bad political moves. And he carried on even after Mweeny stepped down. He continued, he will never stop making bad political moves. Even if the public do get all over the older moves, if they have forgotten them by the time of the election, he will carry on making more of them. more moves that are almost designed to piss voters off. Since McWeeny left his post, we thought maybe that will, you know, maybe it'll get someone else in who's a bit better.

[00:16:54]We've seen no sign of any intelligence in 10 Downing Street improving. If it's showing no signs of improving after all this time and after getting rid of so many senior advisers, only a madm would think it will randomly get better if you give it even more time. So, that's my summ of what was certainly an entertaining circus in Parliament yesterday. Uh, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Please subscribe to the channel for more content. Click the bell notification icon so you know when new videos are out. Thanks for watching and until next time, I'll see you later.