Politics

Morgan McSweeney was blamed by many Labour MPs for the disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. There has been a growing clamour from the backbenches for the chief of staff to fall on his sword and take the hit for his boss. As the architect of Labour’s election win in July 2024,…

A payment given to Lord Peter Mandelson when he was sacked as ambassador to the US is being reviewed after the latest revelations in the Epstein files. The peer lost his role in September last year over his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, just seven months into the job. However, anger in Westminster has…

Peter Mandelson committed a “betrayal of his country” by allegedly leaking government secrets to Jeffrey Epstein and putting Britain “at risk”, former prime minister Gordon Brown has said. Lord Mandelson, his ex-business secretary, has been accused of sharing market-sensitive information with the US sex offender after the 2008 global financial crisis. Mr Brown has since…

Lord Rennard has been suspended from the Liberal Democrats as the party launched a new investigation into sexual harassment allegations. The party said it had received advice that a 2023 probe into accusations made by four women was “flawed in several respects”. Lib Dem leader, Sir Ed Davey, believes he should not be a member…

The Welsh Parliament stands in what was known as Tiger Bay – a multicultural melting pot during the 18-1900s, home to around 50 nationalities working the docks. The area remains diverse. Outside Togayo Cafe we get chatting to Somali-born friends Omar Mohammad and Abdiqadir Mohamoud, who settled in Cardiff in the 90s and early 2000s….

Restoring the crumbling Houses of Parliament could cost more than £39bn and take between 38 and 61 years to complete, parliamentarians have been told. It’s one of two proposals being considered by MPs and peers, and would see work on the building, which mostly dates from the Victorian era, completed in stages. Under the second…

Sir Keir Starmer has been made to look “weak, naive and gullible” by blaming Peter Mandelson’s “lies” for the crisis engulfing his premiership – and it could bring him down, a senior Labour figure has said. The party’s former deputy leader Baroness Harman told Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast the saga had become “so serious” for…

It was hardly a ringing endorsement of the deal. But it could have been a lot worse. And after the week Sir Keir Starmer has just been through, President Trump’s grudging support for the controversial Chagos deal will have come as a relief. The good news for the PM was the president signalling he won’t…

A by-election is set to take place in the constituency of Gorton and Denton, in Greater Manchester, on 26 February. The vote was triggered by the resignation of former MP Andrew Gwynne on medical grounds. Politics latest: Follow live updates You can find below a full list of candidates who will be on the ballot…

By my reckoning, yesterday will be remembered as perhaps the most difficult of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership yet, with even close allies telling me they are not sure where it will end. His admission at Prime Minister’s Questions that he knew of the friendship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein when he appointed him as…