‘Jaw dropper’ | Number 10 BLASTED for ‘FALSE’ claims over Peter Mandelson after ‘box-office’ exposé

追加: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Let's get into our top story this morning because it is crunch time for the prime minister as his cabinet support dwindles amid the Mandlesson scandal.

[00:00:08]>> Yes, youette Cooper, the foreign secretary and the energy secretary Ed Milliban publicly criticized Saki Starmer on the handling of Peter Mandlesson's vetting process and that says MPs called out a toxic culture in number 10 in the comments yesterday.

[00:00:23]>> It's one thing to say as he insists on saying nobody told me. Nobody told me anything. Nobody told me. The question is why didn't the prime minister ask?

[00:00:37]>> The message, the unspoken message to civil servants was what Mandlesson wants, Mandlesson gets. This has damaged the party that I've been a member of for 50 years. I urge him I urge him I urge him to take steps to clear this toxic culture out of our party.

[00:00:59]Well, this all follows claims from Sir Ollie Robbins that foreign office were under constant pressure from number 10 to clear meet Peter Mandlesson for vetting, saying they had a dismissive approach to security checks.

[00:01:11]>> I'm afraid what that translated into um for my team in the foreign office and certainly the handover briefing I was getting as I arrived at post was what I felt was a generally dismissive attitude to his vetting clearance. I think throughout January honestly um my my office uh the foreign secretary's office were under constant pressure um there was a uh there was an atmosphere of uh constant chasing >> and the scandal doesn't end there as former civil servant Tari Robbins went into accusing Downing Street of ordering him to find an ambassadorial role for disgraced peer Matthew Doyle without the foreign secretary's knowledge. So, what does this all mean for the prime minister?

[00:01:59]>> Well, we're joined now by political editor at the Independent, David Maddox.

[00:02:03]He is the journalist who broke this Madison vetting story in the first place. David, you fired the smoking gun.

[00:02:10]What's it been like for you seeing all of this play out?

[00:02:13]>> It's been uh it it's been a kind of crazy few days, I'm going to have to say. And um I I don't even really understand how K star can pick himself up off the ground and go into PMQs today after what happened yesterday. I mean it's clear that uh his office uh and his people were authorized to bully the foreign office uh and uh not only into the Mandals there but the uh the uh Matthew Doyle revelation yesterday was an absolute jaw-dropper. I mean to you know to give an ambassadorial job to one friend of a pedophile is bad enough but two I mean you know it's just it's just astonishing uh levels of things and um clearly this chapter Ali Robbins who's a you know highass civil servant has been made to carry the can for Karma's failures and as so many of us have in the last year and uh you've just got to wonder how long this can continue. I I I suspect not that much longer.

[00:03:22]>> Yeah, David, I I guess today is part three of the saga, isn't it? We had yesterday that damning indictment by uh Sir Oliver Robbins and today we're going to have PMQs. Now, there was an emergency debate yesterday in the House of Commons. Was anything new revealed there?

[00:03:39]>> No, it it wasn't particularly new there.

[00:03:42]It was just kind of laying out really.

[00:03:45]Uh I I thought Kem Badenok in particular was absolutely forensic. I don't think she's given a better performance agreed >> in the comments yesterday uh than she did yesterday. And >> uh it it just demolished uh demolished Star's position. It it was pretty clear on Monday when he gave his statement to the house for you know full of holes. He wasn't for example you know just on our issue uh you know the independent raised the vetting issue back in September 7 months ago and he wasn't able to answer why he wasn't able to read a simple front page >> back then and only seemed to find out about it last week. I mean, you know, it's, you know, there all sorts of problems for him and, you know, we're all coming home to roost.

[00:04:33]>> And Kimmy Bednock was using your journalism and that front page as evidence, as proof that he must have known, he must have seen the independent front page and if he didn't, then Tim Allen or anybody else in number 10 would have seen it. Do you accept the line from the prime minister that nobody told me that Tim Allen, who was um his head of press at the time, wouldn't have told him that you were asking questions, that there was going to be and there was a splash in the Independent.

[00:05:00]>> No, I I just don't accept it at all. I mean, I go back to Friday morning when I you know, I saw his statement saying that nobody in Downing Street had heard until Tuesday last week. And uh you know I I I have to be honest I'm not often an emotional man but I was actually quite outraged by it which is why I published my communications with Tim Allen because it was it was just completely false and you know it's it's I think Diane Abbott summed it up best. you know, if he somehow wasn't told, and and I struggle to believe he wasn't, but if he somehow wasn't told, the fact he wasn't asking the questions when it came up in Parliament, when it came up in, you know, seven months ago, when it came up in media reports is a real kind of deriggation of his of his duty as prime minister.

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[00:07:26]Is there any saving grace for the prime minister here? Now, he did go to the House of Commons on Monday. He to correct the record and he he also took Kem Bay no I think it was six questions she put to him in advance and tried to answer all of them. Is there anything here to say that the prime minister has actually been kept in the dark by the people around him, people he trusted?

[00:07:47]And of course, look, we've all been in situations where people we trust let us down dearly, dearly. Is there any saving grace for the prime minister here?

[00:07:54]Labour MPs stood up in the House of Commons during that debate yesterday.

[00:07:57]They said, "Look, he is a man of integrity."

[00:08:01]>> Well, I mean, I I I I struggle to see it at the moment. You know, he's thrown lots and lots of very um good people under a bus to save his skin. Uh and it's uh you know, it's just going to it cannot continue in this patter. you know, he he came in with this kind of promise of high moral authority, kind of restoring adult politics and all the rest of it, and it's just been worse and worse and worse. You know, I mean, the one saving grace he has is that there's no obvious replacement for him, and that's what's keeping him in power at the moment. But, you know, things have got to dramatically change or else, you know, he's finished as prime minister.

[00:08:45]David, can I ask you a follow-up question because we've seen the cabinet splitting yesterday publicly. Ed Miband sort of having this realization live on air despite the fact he didn't come on GB News, by the way, he's always welcome to. He had this realization live on air seemingly that he could no longer defend the prime minister. He even gave a line about the uh the deputy prime minister David Lammy not being happy about it.

[00:09:05]And of course, Ivette Cooper seemed furious about this potential Matthew Doyle appointment. Are we looking now at the same period of time Boris Johnson was on the ropes over the Pincher scandal? Are we looking at a similar situation where the prime minister is going to have to get that elect turn out on the front front steps of Downing Street?

[00:09:24]>> Well, I I think you're very you're absolutely right to raise a Pinterest scandal because it was a Pinterest scandal, not party gate or any of the other stuff that did for Boris Johnson.

[00:09:34]It was the lack of judgment in appointing somebody he knew was a wrongan to a uh to an important position. This is a this is a million times worse than pinch mand to the US ambassador citizenship, you know. So I mean it's clear to me and I thought Ed Milliband was stunning yesterday. It's clear to me that they are now kind of un uncircling the wagons and that they're now looking to themselves. I mean, of course, Ed Milliband is in many ways perhaps one of the more obvious candidates to replace Kar and uh you know, him sticking the knife in, which is what he did. Yes, he clearly has been talking to David Lambie as well uh who looked furious on Monday. He did look at all supportive on Monday. So, you know, he's clearly got David Lamb's blessing to mention him. And uh I I think it's a sign that the prime minister is in trouble.

[00:10:31]Can we just touch on Matthew Doyle before we let you go? Because you alluded to it earlier that it was one of the most extraordinary parts of Siri Robbins evidence yesterday um saying that number 10 private office had put pressure on him to give Matthew Doyle an ambassador job and not tell the foreign secretary. How is the prime minister going to defend that today?

[00:10:51]>> I I I can hardly wait to see how he tries to defend that one. I'm sure I'm I'm willing to make a bet here on GB News, but he's going to say nobody told me.

[00:11:05]>> That's going to be, you know, nothing to do with me, G. I mean, it was uh, you know, uh, I mean, it's just, you know, it's going to be stretching the band's credibility again uh, all over again. I It's just uh, you know, but it's it's shocking that they tried to do that. I mean, let's just remember Matthew Doyle was a nice jab actually to deal with.

[00:11:29]You know, I dealt with him quite a lot as director of coms, but he was a rubbish director of communications. He was one of the worst ones I've uh I've seen in Down Street. And I've been, you know, working the Westminster Beat now for 15 16 years. and um he was being sacked for being useless and they just wanted to give him one of these jobs, one of the plum ambassadorial jobs as a kind of landing pad. And now we of course we know that he was uh you know protecting a pedophile potentially allegedly.

[00:12:00]But uh you know I mean it was it's just astonishing and uh as I say you know to to uh to um give one ambassadorial job to a friend of a pedophile is bad enough but two is just uh I mean it's mind-blowing really.

[00:12:16]>> David thanks so much for joining us. It reminds me of the quote from the prime minister something along the lines of uh the the facts will be hard to believe.

[00:12:24]Uh, aren't they just David? Thank you so much for joining us this morning. That's political editor at The Independent, David Maddox.

[00:12:30]>> Yeah. He says that he knows that the story sounds incredible. Well, that it does when you've got the whole house laughing. When you've got journalists laughing, >> you've lost respect.

[00:12:39]>> Yeah. Yeah. Hard to get that back. All right. Speaking yesterday evening, Matthew Doyle says he never asked for a job in the foreign office. He said, "I have never sought any head of mission ambassadorial posting. I was never aware of anyone speaking to the FCDO about such a role for me. My desire after leaving number 10 was to stay in UK politics.

[00:12:56]>> He's also said that he wants to apologize for his past association with Sha Morton. His offenses were vile, he says, and I completely condemn the actions for which he was rightly convicted. At the time, he was maintaining his innocence, and I regret supporting him. My thoughts are with the victims and all those impacted by these crimes.