𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Top Labour minister Jacqui Smith was left squirming when BBC interviewer Nick Robinson tore into Sir Keir Starmer as the Prime minister fought to save his job. The Radio 4 Today programme presenter opened by demanding to know whether the Labour leader was about to quit amid the fallout from the Lord Mandelson scandal.

Ms Smith, a former home secretary, instantly tried to dodge the question but Robinson pressed her by asking: “He’s told you he will not resign, has he? Or someone who asked you to do this interview has?” As Ms Smith once again talked about Sir Keir’s desire to lead a Labour Government that can “change the country”, Robinson cut her off and tried again: “But the question this morning is whether Keir Starmer, who is said to be in a very dark mood, may choose to quit.”

Ms Smith began replying: “I don’t believe he will,” prompting Robinson to interject: “You don’t believe he will? But do you know? Has he said it to you? Have you spoken to him at all?”

She replied: “I have not spoken to him directly about this.”

Robinson concluded: “So you don’t know and I don’t know!”

The interview became more toe-curling as Robinson asked about the resignation of Morgan McSweeney as Sir Keir’s chief of staff on Sunday after he took responsibility for advising the Prime Minister to appoint Lord Mandelson as US ambassador.

Robinson highlighted comments made by Sir Keir when campaigning for the Labour leadership six years ago, in which he said he would always “carry the can” for the mistakes of his staff.

The Radio 4 host pointed out: “At the time Keir Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson, he was not just Prime Minister, he was, he is, the father of a teenage daughter.

“He appointed a man who he knew had stayed friends with a man who had gone to prison, having admitted paying for sex with a girl of his daughter’s own age.

“What on earth more did he need to know before deciding that Mandelson was not fit to be ambassador?”

Ms Smith insisted that Sir Keir had not, at that point, known the “scale and relationship” of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein.

“They didn’t know he was an apologist, an encourager, of Jeffrey Epstein,” she said.

Robinson hit back: “Hold on – Mandelson had stayed at the house of a man who had paid under-age girls for sex and had served time in prison for it.

“When you say ‘we don’t know the extent and nature, we don’t know how pernicious it was’, how much more pernicious could it be? What other extent did you need to know to say ‘this man was not fit to be ambassador’?”

“It was clear. He had stayed at the house of a convicted paedophile. Now, people who are not ‘mere friends’ do not stay at the house of someone who served a prison sentence for paying under-age girls for sex.

“What more did the Prime Minister need to know in order to conclude – without blaming the vetting and blaming Peter Mandelson’s lies, and blaming his chief adviser – what on earth did he need to know to say ‘as a father I will not countenance this’?”

Ms Smith insisted neither she nor the PM were arguing that Lord Mandelson’s appointment was the right decision, and that Sir Keir made a mistake.

Robinson pointed out that while Sir Keir has admitted making a mistake, it has been Morgan McSweeney, not the Prime Minister, who has paid the price for that mistake by losing his job.