'They expect us to believe this?' – Starmer’s Mandelson story doesn’t add up

Westminster is braced ahead of two key interventions in the Mandelson scandal. This afternoon, the prime minister will give a statement in which we understand he will convey his ‘anger’ at being kept in the dark about Peter Mandelson’s (failed) vetting process. Then tomorrow morning, we are expecting to hear Olly Robbins’s side of the story when he appears in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Whose testimony will be the most compelling? Will it be the case – as we expect – that Mandelson’s was a political appointment which the Foreign Office was under orders to push through, despite what skeletons might be in his closet?

Tim Shipman speaks to James Heale.

Produced by Megan McElroy and Oscar Edmondson.

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