The Mandelson affair—and the price of factionalism

After the explosive revelation that Peter Mandelson had “failed” his vetting before being waved through as US ambassador, Alona and Imaan are joined by contributing editor Tom Clark to discuss the root cause of this political disaster. It wasn’t the vetting process, argues Tom, but the power struggles at the heart of the Labour party. Why weren’t Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein and Russian oligarchs immediate dealbreakers for the prime minister? And why was Number 10 enquiring about an ambassadorship for Matthew Doyle, who was recently driven out of the Lords over links to a sex offender? Tom discusses party purges, secretive dealings and double standards. And, with Labour falling to fourth place in some polls, he also discusses the road to political recovery. How long will Starmer survive? To read Tom’s article ‘The Mandelson saga is really about Labour factionalism’, click here: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Mandelson affair—and the price of factionalism is an episode from The Prospect Interview by Prospect Magazine.

This episode is 25:16 long.

This episode was published on Apr 22, 2026.

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