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Morgan McSweeney says advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson was ‘serious error of judgment’ – UK politics live | Politics
Morgan McSweeney says advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson was ‘serious error of judgment’
Morgan McSweeney is giving evidence now.
He starts with an opening statement, which he begins by recognising the harm done to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.
He talks about the importance of public service.
I’ve spent much of my working life trying, in whatever role I held, to make this country fairer, stronger and more successful.
I have always believed public service is a privilege. It brings responsibility and scrutiny, but it also brings a meaningful chance to improve people’s lives. That is what motivated me in government.
He moves on to Mandelson.
The appointment of Manderson as ambassador was a serious error of judgment. I advised the prime minister in support of that appointment and I was wrong to do so.
As I said in my resignation statement, I resigned because I believe responsibility should rest with those who make serious mistakes. Accountability in public life cannot apply only when it is convenient.
The prime minister advice relied on my advice and I got it wrong.
Key events
McSweeney says he was ‘surprised’ Foreign Office did not get Epstein files material on Mandelson from US government
Back at the foreign affairs committee, Morgan McSweeney says there is “no way” that Peter Mandelson would have been appointed ambassador to the US if the government had known the information about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein that came out in the Epstein files.
But he suggests the Foreign Office should have been able to get some of this material from the US administration.
One of the things that subsequently surprised me – I would have assumed that, and maybe they did – but I would assume that our Foreign Office would have been in contact with us counterparts to see what information they held on him.
In the Commons Kemi Badenoch is opening the debate on the motion saying Keir Starmer should be referred to the privileges committee.
There is a live feed here.
Here is the text of the motion.
That this House
(1) notes the Rt hon Member for Holborn and St Pancras’s assurances on the floor of the House about “full due process” being followed in the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States of America, in particular (but not limited to) answers given on 10 September 2025, 4 February and 22 April 2026, further notes his assertion on 20 April 2026 that he “had made it clear that my position was that the position was subject to developed vetting” and his assertions that “Sir Olly Robbins was absolutely clear that nobody put pressure on him to make this appointment” and that “No pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case” on 22 April 2026; and
(2) accordingly orders that these matters be referred to the Committee of Privileges to consider whether, in making these and other related statements, the Rt hon Member may have misled the House, and whether such conduct amounts to a contempt of the House, bearing in mind the standards expected of Ministers as set out in the House’s own resolution on Ministerial Accountability and the Ministerial Code.
I will stick with the foreign affairs committe for now, but cover highlights from Badenoch’s speech later.
Thornberry intervenes to say she had hoped to finish this hearing at 1pm. They will go beyond that, she says. She hopes they will wrap up by 1.20pm, but they will definitely finish by 1.30pm, she says.
McSweeney says George Osborne seen as ‘very credible’ candidate for US ambassador
Q: Was George Osborne just on the shortlist as a stooge, to make Starmer pick Mandelson?
McSweeney says the civil service had a lot of warning that a Labour government would want to appoint a political figure as ambassador to Washington.
If Kamala Harris had won, Mandelson would not have been appointed, he says.
He says Osborne was a “very credible candidate” for the job.
McSweeney says the Cabinet Office did carry out due dilegence scrutiny for George Osborne when he was being considered as a candidate for the ambassador’s job.
Q: Why were these decisions not well documented?
McSweeney says decisions in government are taken in conversation, as well as on paper.
But he says how government decisions are recorded is not a matter for him.
Thornberry intervenes. She says it is all very well taking decisons orally, but they were not recorded in writing.
She says the government has not provided evidence as to how these decisions were made.
McSweeney is now being asked about his personal relationship with Mandelson.
Q: Did you attend regular dinners with him at his house?
McSweeney says he thinks he attended two meals in Mandelson’s house in 2024. There were other people there too, he says. One was a lunch, and one was a dinner, he thinks.
And he thinks he had two restaurant meals with Mandelson.
McSweeney says government officials under pressure to act quickly – but that’s not pressure ‘to lower standards’
Referring to claims Downing Street put pressure on the Foreign Office to approve Mandelson’s vetting, McSweeney says in January 2025 getting Mandelson’s appointment confirmed wasn’t one of the most important issues facing the government.
He goes on:
I think it’s important that we unpack this idea of pressure because there’s been a lot of conversation about it.
There’s pressure in government every day, and most that pressure comes from within.
Every civil servant minister, [the staff] I worked with, woke up every morning feeling pressure to make the country better, wanting to move faster – that’s where the pressure comes from.
And No 10’s job in all of this is to make sure that the prime minister’s decisions are acted on quickly.
But there is a “real difference” between that, “asking people to lower standards,” McSweeney sayd. “And we never did that.”
McSweeney says false claim he swore at officials has caused him ‘great deal of stress’
McSweeney says he is very glad that Philip Barton has confirmed that McSweeney did not swear at him. (See 9.36am.)
He says:
This swearing rumour is it is something that has caused me a great deal of stress for a number of months.
I do not know why people do this in politics, put around untrue rumours. They phone lots of journalists. Those journalists then phone lots of politicians … It’s damaging for people’s reputations. And I think it’s unfair for staff who can speak for themselves.
Here is a Guardian video from McSweeney’s opening statement.
Thornberry asks McSweeney to clarify the apparent discrepancy between what he said at 11.50am and what he said at 12.23pm.
Sweeney says at the time he put those questions to Mandelson he thought Mandelson was telling the truth.
It was only after the Bloomberg emails were published in September 2025 that he realised Mandelson had not told the truth.
He apologises if he was not clear in his earlier comments.
McSweeney says he did not try to get Mandelson appointed as favour, or because he regarded him as ‘hero’
McSweeney told the committee that he did not try to get Mandelson appointed ambassador as a favour for a friend, or because he regarded him as a “hero”. He said:
In every advice that I gave to the prime minister, hand on heart I thought I was operating in a motive in the national interest.
In politics, over decades, you know a lot of people. In 20 years in politics, I’ve had to fire friends from jobs. I’ve had to turn people down who were desperate for jobs, who were closer friends of mine than Mandelson, who really wanted jobs in No 10, or people who thought they were going to be ministers, because I’ve always tried to operate in national interest …
This was not some hero I was trying to get a job for. I thought that his skills as EU commissioner would help us to get the trade deal that I think the country needed, because we were very, very exposed after Brexit and getting that trade deal right was very important.
Thornberry is asking again about the questions McSweeney asked Mandelson about his relationship with Epstein.
McSweeney says he put the questions in writing because he thought Mandelson was more likely to tell the truth if he were replying in writing. And that way there would be a record.
Q: Did you tell the PM that you did not think Mandelson was telling you the full truth?
McSweeney says he did not say that to the PM.
Q: And did the PM say, if that was a problem, the DV will pick it up.
No, says McSweeney.
He says that at that point he thought Mandelson was telling the truth.
He also makes the point again that, because of the Met investigation, he cannot say what Mandelson said in his replies.
McSweeney says he had no plan in place for Mandelson failing vetting
McSweeney said that, if Mandelson failed his vetting, his appointment would have been withdrawn.
I didn’t have a contingency plan [for Mandelson failing vetting] in place, but was always aware that somebody could fail security vetting, was always aware that that was a possibility for any appointment that we made.
Asked if he thought Mandelson might fail vetting, McSweeney said:
No. And if it had happened, we’d have withdrawn the ambassadorship. It would have been a political embarrassment.
Forwarder, a Russian-flagged ship which left port in Primorsk last week, entered the Channel on Wednesday evening.
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Key events
Greg Wood
Gosden and O’Brien rivalry crackles in Gold Cup
The rivalry between top trainers John Gosden and Aidan O’Brien is a long way short of a feud – “Aidan and I are big rivals”, Gosden said on Wednesday, “but we get on and we tease each other a lot. There’s no harm in that and it’s a little bit of banter.”
But it still makes for an interesting undercurrent as Gosden’s Trawlerman, bidding to become only the second eight-year-old winner since 1900, takes on the up-and-coming Scandinavia, last year’s St Leger winner, in the feature event of the week.
Gosden’s “teasing” has included frequent references to the big teams of runners that Ballydoyle sends to many Group Ones, and when O’Brien suggested last autumn that he would love to see Ombudsman, the winner of Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes, line up for the Irish Champion Stakes, Gosden responded that his stable star would not “appreciate running against multiple entries from one stable on a track with a short straight.”
The possibility that Ballydoyle was employing “team tactics” with its runners was also highlighted after Tuesday’s St James’s Palace Stakes, when Christophe Soumillon, on the O’Brien second-string, Puerto Rico, picked up an eight-day ban for riding “in a manner to benefit” his stable companion and second-favourite, Gstaad.
There is little chance of a dust-up over tactics in the Gold Cup, however, as Scandinavia is O’Brien’s only runner in the race and Trawlerman is likely to make his own running. The regular to-and-fro between the two trainers, though, will add extra spice to the closing stages if Trawlerman and Scandinavia are duking it out in the final furlong.
Greg Wood
6.10 BUCKINGHAM PALACE STAKES HANDICAP preview
The money is all for runners in high-numbered stalls in the finale, and that’s hardly surprising given the way that races on the straight course have been unfolding this week. Jack Channon’s Mezcala, in stall 30, is currently a narrow favourite and remains feasibly handicapped dropping back to seven furlongs from a mile, while Cosi Bello (26) was a bit better than his narrow winning margin might imply at Haydock last time and also has form in a big field on this course. Elerak, highest of all in 31, is also attracting support to give Billy Loughnane another winner at the meeting, while Blue Brother, unraced since suffering all manner of bad luck when fancied for the Hunt Cup here last summer, is another fascinating contender from stall 28.
Timeform top-rated: Dance In The Storm
SELECTION: BLUE BROTHER
Greg Wood
5.35 HAMPTON COURT STAKES preview
Not the loftiest event on the Royal Ascot schedule by any means, but still an interesting contest for three-year-olds that are just below the top rung, for the moment at least, and it occasionally highlights a colt on the way to better things. Endorsement, the Aidan O’Brien-trained favourite, was still engaged in the Derby until quite late in the day, and drops back to 10 furlongs having skated up in a Listed race over a mile-and-a-half just a fortnight ago. Maho Bay too was seen as a possible for a run in the Derby until blotting his copy book by finishing fourth behind Maltese Cross in the Lingfield Derby Trial, but the winner there went on to finish second at Epsom and so the form may well be better than it seems. The list of Derby trial disappointments also includes Morshdi, fifth in the Dante, while Oxagon, the Craven Stakes winner in April, has failed to build on that in two runs since, though the latest was admittedly a Classic as he finished 12th of 16 in the French Derby at Chantilly. Generic, meanwhile, was seven lengths behind Constitution River – surely the best three-year-old colt seen out this year – in the Dee Stakes at Chester, having only started his racing career in March, and will also be bang there on that form with only marginal improvement.
Timeform top-rated: Endorsement.
SELECTION: GENERIC
Greg Wood
4.50 BRITANNIA STAKES preview
This straight-mile handicap for three-year-olds is, for me at least, the toughest Royal Ascot test of them all from a betting point of view – looking down the list of previous winners, I’m fairly sure that Perotto, in 2021, is the only winner I’ve had this century – and this year’s renewal looks as competitive as always. It looks as though I’ve managed to find the favourite, though, as David Marnane’s Jamestown has attracted plenty of support this morning, and has both the high draw and the run style that you need to be looking for on the straight course this week. A list of dangerous opponents is effectively everything else – even the 80-1 shot Winding Stream is within 7lb of the top-rated horse on Timeform’s numbers and was racing in Group company last time – but We’re Goosers is sure to be popular as a result of his nine-and-a-half length win last time, and so too Organise, from the John & Thady Gosden yard, who was touched off in a well-run race last time and sports first-time cheekpieces today. Moonfall, an eye-catcher at Chester in May, and Exclusive Code, the winner of a big-field maiden at Newbury, are also on the short-list, but frankly, your guess is as good as mine.
Timeform top-rated: We’re Goosers.
SELECTION: JAMESTOWN
An inaugural “Royal Ascot colour of the year” has been introduced this year, and on Gold Cup day guests were encouraged to wear their best “bright tomato” shade as part of the dress code. This chap got the memo.
Oddschecker market movers
Greg Wood
4.15 GOLD CUP preview
The staying division is currently missing a truly “public” horse like the three-time winner, Stradivarius, but Trawlerman, last year’s winner, will be a stern test for the posse of four-year-olds in this year’s Gold Cup field that could conceivably run up a sequence over the next few years if all goes well. The list is headed by Aidan O’Brien’s Scandinavia, last year’s St Leger winner, who arrives in Berkshire looking for a sixth straight success, while Rahiebb and Carmers, second and fifth at Doncaster, are also looking to establish themselves as Cup horses with a win in the most prestigious staying event of them all. Other live runners include Al Riffa, last season’s Irish St Leger winner, for the Joseph O’Brien stable, and George Scott’s Caballo De Mar, a Group One winner over two miles in France last time out. My idea of the best bet in the race, though, is Carmers, on the basis that Trawlerman missed his intended prep race in May and may be slightly short of his best, while Paddy Twomey’s runner – who beat both Scandinavia and Rahiebb in the Queen’s Vase here last summer – has as much chance as either of his fellow four-year-olds of finding the necessary improvement stepping up to two-and-a-half miles.
Timeform top-rated: Trawlerman
SELECTION: CARMERS
Royal Ascot Procession List
1st Carriage
The King
The Queen
The Earl of Snowdon
Ms Isabelle de la Bruyère
2nd Carriage
The Princess Royal
Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence
The Duke of Edinburgh
The Duchess of Edinburgh
3rd Carriage
Princess Zahra Aga Khan
HH Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah al-Thani
Mrs Zara Tindall
Mr Willie Mullins
4th Carriage
Lord Cavendish
Lady Cavendish
Mr Stanley Tucci
Ms Felicity Blunt
Stanley Tucci is in the carriages today. An acclaimed actor, of course, he’s also well known for his cooking so perhaps he helped with luncheon at Windsor Castle to which the carriage guests are invited before their trip down the track. Now you know why the racing doesn’t start till 2.30pm!
Andrew is innocent!
I know you would miss the regular royal spot ahead of the Royal Procession list announcement at noon if we didn’t share some and today’s concerns Lady Victoria Hervey who has arrived at the races today. For those unawarer she’s a British socialite and former model who dated Prince Andrew (now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) briefly in 1999. Throughout the fallout from his associations with Jeffrey Epstein, she has remained one of the prince’s most vocal defenders. In an interview with LBC in February, not only did she admit to being named in the Epstein files herself, but branded anyone who wasn’t as a “loser”. With friends like this …
Greg Wood
3.40 RIBBLESDALE STAKES preview
Sound the stat klaxon, it’s time for the one about Oaks runners in the Ribblesdale as Legacy Link attempts to win Ascot’s Group Two for three-year-old fillies having run in the Epsom Classic last time out. A total of 33 fillies have lined up for this race after running in the Oaks since 2010 and just two have won, with the list of beaten runners including three favourites and seven more that set off at 5-1 or shorter. It is a big ask, in other words, and Legacy Link, the Epsom runner-up behind impressive winner Thundering On, will deserve huge credit if she can pull it off on what will be her third start in just over a month. Earth Shot and French challenger Gilded Prize are the likeliest opponents to give her something to think about, and while neither managed to win last time out, both look sure to blossom over this trip. And there is a royal runner to look out for too, although Golden Orbit, a home-bred daughter of Sea The Stars who was a beaten favourite last time, is friendless in the market at 33-1 and the first-time blinkers will need to spark serious improvement.
Timeform top-rated: Legacy Link
SELECTION: EARTH SHOT
Greg Wood
3.05 KING GEORGE V STAKES HANDICAP preview
Plenty of future Group-race winners have won this handicap for three-year-olds in the past, and plenty have been beaten in it too, as it is a race that generally throws up a hard luck story or three. All but a handful of the 19 runners have shown enough promise already to be credible winners if they continue to progress, with Charlie Appleby’s Into the Light,Heyzoom (Owen Burrows) and Tierra Del Toro (Ralph Beckett) probably the most obvious names to note, alongside Joseph O’Brien’s Enceladus, with Ryan Moore booked to ride in the absence of a runner from the trainer’s dad’s stable. O’Brien jnr is having a stormer of a meeting so far, and was tied with O’Brien snr on three winners at the top of the trainers’ table after day two, and Enceladus is one of four from the stable in this race, including Cannes, the favourite, who got off the mark at the third attempt at Leopardstown in May. Heyzoom posted an excellent winning time when successful over 10 furlongs at Newbury last time, while Into The Light has been narrowly beaten on his last two starts but was given a lot to do by William Buick over a two-furlong shorter trip last time.
Timeform top-rated: Heyzoom.
SELECTION: HEYZOOM
2.30 CHESHAM STAKES preview
Aidan O’Brien’s first chance of the afternoon to get the one winner he needs to be the first trainer to a century at Royal Ascot comes via his colts Aix La Chapelle and second-string South Dakota, in a race that he has won five times in the last decade. Aix La Chapelle looked very rough around the edges on his debut at the Curragh just a fortnight ago but still ran out an easy winner and should find plenty for the experience. He is drawn in stall five, though, which is less than ideal on the evidence from the straight course over the first two days. Another leading Irish-trained runner, Fozzy Stack’s Nola Soul, also overcame greenness to win on debut and could give the favourite plenty to think about, while George Scott’s Sea Venture found all the trouble going on her first start over six furlongs before showing a smart turn of foot to win with plenty to spare. As a daughter of the Derby winner, Sea The Stars, she looks certain to improve for the extra furlong today.
Timeform top-rated: Aix La Chapelle
SELECTION: SEA VENTURE
Going to start putting up some previews of the day’s action from our racing correspondent and tipster Greg Wood, who is currently leading the national press challenge in the Racing Post.
Good morning. It was overcast this morning but no precipitation so the going for day three of Royal Ascot is: Good to Firm and there’s very little between the different sides of the track.
GoingStick readings at 8.30am:
Stands’ side: 8.8
Centre: 8.7
Far side: 8.7
Round course: 7.5
We have one non-runners so far so cross this off your list of possible wagers …
4.50pm Britannia Stakes: 16 Bobby McGee (vet’s certificate – temperature)
Preamble
Good morning from Ascot on the third morning of the Royal meeting 2026 – Gold Cup day – where Aidan O’Brien is poised to become the first trainer to saddle a century of winners at Flat racing’s showpiece event, having moved to 99 with a winner in the first race on Wednesday.
There are more races to aim at these days than there were in the era when the late Sir Henry Cecil racked up what was, at the time, a record 75 winners, and while the Sir Michael Stoute was active well into the five-day Ascot era and had saddled 82 by the time of his recent retirement, O’Brien’s record is still an astonishing achievement, even by the standards of the pre-eminent trainer of the last 25 years.
He has a total of seven runners on today’s card as he looks to reach three figures, including Scandinavia, the somewhat uneasy favourite, in the Gold Cup at 4.15 and opening up with Aix La Chapelle in the Chesham Stakes at 2.30.
Scandinavia’s main Gold Cup rival, according to the betting at least, is last year’s winner, Trawlerman, and there is now less than a point between them in the betting. Elsewhere on the day three card, the Oaks form gets an early test as Legacy Link, the Epsom runner-up, lines up for the Ribblesdale Stakes (3.40) just two weeks on from her big run in the Classic, while the Britannia Handicap at 4.50 could well turn out to be the most competitive event of the entire meeting – just two of the 30 runners are currently on offer at single-figure odds.
Another 5mm of water was applied overnight to maintain the going at good-to-firm, thoughts on possible winners are here, and the action is underway at 2.30 on what could be a historic day at Royal Ascot. One hundred is only a number, but it’s an impressive number all the same.
The Bank last cut interest rates in December but upheaval in the Middle East has stalled any further reductions.
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