{"id":923996,"date":"2026-04-28T11:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T11:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/923996\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T11:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T11:59:17","slug":"keir-starmer-live-pms-former-top-aide-blames-brexit-for-mandelson-saga-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/923996\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer LIVE: PM’s former top aide blames Brexit for Mandelson saga | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer’s<\/a> former chief of staff has admitted a “serious error of judgement” over decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson<\/a> as US ambassador.<\/p>\n

Morgan McSweeney also blamed Brexit<\/a> for giving the disgraced Labour grandee the UK’s top diplomatic role.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe reason why I thought he was the right choice is because Britain was exposed\u2026 after Brexit, we left the European Union<\/a> without any US trade deal. And for me, honestly, this was the top priority of the Prime Minister, was to get a US trade deal with the Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I thought that, based on Mandelson\u2019s experience as an EU trade commissioner, that made him the strongest candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut like everybody else, I made clear to the Prime Minister, there was pros and cons, and there was risks. I don\u2019t think the Prime Minister would have chosen Mandelson if Kamala Harris<\/a> had been elected president.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes after it emerged the Prime Minister demanded the Labour grandee get the job even though top officials feared Mandelson’s friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> made him the wrong choice.<\/p>\n

The damning account of events was delivered by Sir Philip Barton, former chief civil servant in the Foreign Office, as he gave evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> is facing a nightmare day as his former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, will give evidence to MPs later in the morning.<\/p>\n

And in the afternoon, MPs will vote in the Commons over whether there should be a parliamentary sleaze probe into claims Sir Keir lied to MPs.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff has admitted a “serious error of judgement” over decision to appoint Lord…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,258942,258941,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-923996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-keir-starmer","16":"tag-keir-starmer-privileges-committee","17":"tag-mandelson-scandal","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116482222926707087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}