Mandelson says he appreciated Trump’s ‘graciousness’ and ‘directness’
Laura Kuenssberg asks Peter Mandelson if he appreciated Donald Trump when he was the UK ambassador to Washington.
Mandelson says he did like Trump, itemizing off quite a few the explanation why, however mentioned he didn’t like all of his “language”.
I like him, sure, I appreciated his humour, his graciousness…
I appreciated his directness. You knew precisely what he was pondering and the place you stood and what he needed. And the way he was proposing to interact, with you. Did I like in all his language? No, I didn’t, did I? Did he make me gasp?
Typically, in a number of the issues he mentioned, in fact. However on the finish of the day, President Trump is an extraordinary danger taker.
And for me, on this planet as we speak, given all its conflicts and its risks and what and the way I’d outline management of a rustic, I connect numerous significance.
Key occasions
This weblog is now closed. Learn our full report on Mandelson’s feedback right here:
Abstract
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In his first TV interview since he was sacked as UK ambassador to the US in September, Peter Mandelson declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining buddies with the late paedophile financier after his conviction however advised the BBC he was sorry for “a system” that meant Epstein’s victims have been ignored. Mandelson mentioned he had paid a “calamitous” worth in being sacked over his affiliation with “evil monster” Epstein.
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Epstein had pleaded responsible in 2008 and served time in jail however Mandelson mentioned he had believed his excuses and continued to help him out of “misplaced loyalty” and “a most horrible mistake on my half”.
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Transport secretary Heidi Alexander mentioned it might have gone “a great distance” for Mandelson to have apologised for his friendship with Epstein and accused him of “deep naivety”.
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In his wide-ranging BBC interview, Peter Mandelson additionally mentioned he appreciated Donald Trump’s “graciousness” and “directness” and mentioned he believed the US wouldn’t take management of Greenland by army drive. This adopted a report within the Telegraph that mentioned Downing Avenue was speaking with European allies about probably deploying a army drive to Greenland within the hope of decreasing the chance of Donald Trump attempting to grab management of the self-governing Danish territory.
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The Conservative occasion mentioned it might ban under-16s from accessing social media platforms in the event that they have been in authorities, heaping strain on Labour to take the same line.
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The Tory chief Kemi Badenoch, who has additionally proposed for telephones to be banned in colleges, advised the BBC this morning that social media platforms have been taking advantage of youngsters’s “nervousness” and “distraction” and have been “designed to be addictive”.
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The Better Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, appeared to endorse the Conservative Social gathering’s plan to ban under-16s from social media, saying “dad and mom would welcome a cross-party consensus round a lot bolder motion”.
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It got here after one of many UK’s largest instructing unions, NASUWT, called on the government to ban social media for under-16s over considerations about psychological well being and focus.
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Requested in regards to the protests in Iran, Kemi Badenoch mentioned she would “not have a problem” with seeing the Iranian regime eliminated and that it may very well be proper for the US and its allies to be concerned in that course of. Heidi Alexander, in the meantime, mentioned the UK needs to see a peaceable transition of energy in Iran, the place protests have been met with a violent police response.
Councils spent an estimated £353m final yr on housing youngsters in unlawful properties, together with caravans, vacation camps and Air BnBs, in line with a brand new report from the youngsters’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza. Right here is an extract of a narrative by the PA information company based mostly on the report:
On 1 September, there have been 669 youngsters residing in unlawful properties – down from 764 on the identical day in 2024, the report from youngsters’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza mentioned.
Of those 669 youngsters, 89 have lived in the identical unlawful housing for multiple yr and almost 60% have complicated extra wants or disabilities, in line with the info.
Most kids in unlawful lodging are over the age of 15 (51%), whereas 46% have been aged 10 to fifteen and three.1% have been beneath 10 years outdated, the report mentioned.
Dame Rachel mentioned her findings, launched on Sunday, have been “indicative of large failings throughout a whole system” and referred to as for improved fashions of youngsters’s social care.
Andy Burnham says he agrees with numerous what the Tories say about ‘youngsters and social media’
We talked about within the opening submit that the Conservatives are backing a ban on social media for under-16s after Australia introduced restrictions on social media for kids final month, and different nations are actually contemplating related strikes to guard younger individuals’s psychological well being.
Now Andy Burnham, the mayor of Better Manchester, has heaped extra strain on the Labour authorities to behave by saying he agrees with numerous what the Conservatives are saying about youngsters’s social media use, urging for “bolder motion” from ministers.
Burnham, Keir Starmer’s potential rival for the Labour management (if it involves that), said in a post on X:
I discover myself agreeing with numerous what Kemi Badenoch is saying about youngsters and social media. It appears to me dad and mom would welcome a cross-party consensus round a lot bolder motion.
The UK authorities is carefully monitoring the response to Australia’s ban and contemplating its coverage choices.
Labour doesn’t presently help a social media ban for under-16s, however argues it’s taking motion to ensure youngsters are solely in a position to entry age-appropriate content material – one thing many dad and mom (and youngsters) would disagree is definitely the case in actual life.
UK needs peaceable transition of energy in Iran, transport secretary says
Because the US weighs the choice of army strikes, Heidi Alexander mentioned she wouldn’t be drawn on America’s international coverage in the direction of Iran, where many people have reportedly been killed or injured by security forces in recent days.
As a substitute, because the Guardian’s Whitehall editor Rowena Mason mentions in this story, the transport secretary would solely say that the UK needs to see a peaceable transition of energy in Iran.
Alexander advised the BBC that the Iranian authorities wants to guard civilian lives, the general public’s elementary freedoms, together with the proper to protest, and for officers to be restrained of their actions/response to the demonstrations, which have been triggered by the collapse of the nation’s forex however have since broadened into wider anti-government protests.
Talking to Sky Information, she mentioned Iran was a hostile state that posed a safety risk within the Center East and repressed its personal individuals, including: “The precedence, as of as we speak, is to try to stem the violence that’s occurring in Iran in the intervening time.”
Alexander was far more constrained in her feedback compared to Tory chief Kemi Badenoch, who mentioned earlier that she wouldn’t have an “challenge” with the elimination of the present regime in Iran (see submit at 09.42 for extra particulars).
UK working with Nato allies to bolster safety within the Arctic, transport secretary says
The Telegraph has reported that Downing Avenue is speaking with European allies about probably deploying a army drive to Greenland within the hope of decreasing the chance of Donald Trump attempting to grab management of the mineral-rich self-governing Danish territory.
The plans might contain British troopers, warships and planes being deployed to guard Greenland from Russia and China, in line with the Telegraph.
No 10 has not commented on the specifics of the story. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander was requested about it on the BBC this morning and mentioned the report “probably reads one thing extra into enterprise as regular discussions amongst Nato allies than there truly are”. It’s not solely clear what she meant by that…
Alexander went on to say:
We do agree with President Trump that the Arctic Circle and the nations that border that, which in geopolitical phrases is also known as the Excessive North. That is turning into an more and more contested a part of the world, with the ambitions of Putin and China.
And while we haven’t seen the appalling penalties in that a part of the world that we’ve seen in Ukraine, it’s actually vital that we do every part that we are able to with all of our Nato allies to make sure that we have now an efficient deterrent in that a part of the globe towards Putin.
He’s more and more energetic there. And we noticed simply a few days in the past the help that we supplied in an enabling capability to the US to intercept that vessel, which was a part of the shadow fleet, and so what we’re not going to do is take any dangers with the safety of our nation within the European continent. And that’s why we’re working with our Nato allies.
It will have gone ‘a great distance’ for Mandelson to have apologised for friendship with Epstein, transport secretary says
The transport secretary Heidi Alexander was up subsequent on the BBC’s politics programme and was requested whether or not Peter Mandelson ought to have apologised to victims for persevering with his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the now-deceased convicted little one intercourse offender. (Epstein was discovered dead in his cell on 10 August 2019 whereas awaiting trial on federal intercourse crimes expenses in New York. The demise was ruled a suicide.)
Alexander mentioned:
I feel what we noticed there in that interview was at greatest, deep naivety, from Peter Mandelson. And I feel it might have gone a great distance for the ladies who have been subjected to essentially the most appalling remedy by the hands of Jeffrey Epstein for Peter to have apologised and brought that chance, sure, I do.
Laura Kuenssberg then requested Alexander if it was naive for the federal government to have given Mandelson the ambassador job (in December 2024) when his friendship with Epstein was identified. The transport secretary replied:
I feel the breadth and the character of the connection that Peter Mandelson had with Jeffrey Epstein solely turned clear on the level at which these emails have been revealed in September of final yr.
And that’s why the prime minister acted swiftly, took quick motion to take away him because the ambassador to america. While there would clearly be a dialogue about due diligence earlier than you appoint any individual to such a job, it’s my understanding that the detailed info was not obtainable.
Mandelson says he was ‘stored separate from sexual facet of Epstein’s life’ as a result of he was a homosexual man
Mandelson advised the BBC that he “by no means noticed something in (Epstein’s) life, after I was with him, after I was in his properties, that will give me any motive to suspect what this evil monster was doing in preying on these younger girls”.
The previous UK ambassador to the US mentioned as a result of he was “a homosexual man in (Epstein’s) circle, I used to be stored separate from what he was doing within the sexual facet of his life”.
Mandelson declines to apologise for friendship with Epstein: ‘I used to be not culpable’
Requested whether or not he needed to apologise for his affiliation with Epstein, Mandelson mentioned: “I need to apologise to these girls for a system that refused to listen to their voices and didn’t give them the safety they have been entitled to anticipate.”
Pressed by Laura Kuenssberg on whether or not he would apologise for his friendship with Epstein after his conviction, Mandelson mentioned:
If I had identified, if I used to be in any approach complicit or culpable, in fact I’d apologise… however I used to be not culpable, I used to be not educated for what he was doing, and I remorse, and can remorse to my dying day, the truth that powerless girls weren’t given the safety they have been entitled to anticipate.
Requested if he deserved to be sacked, Mandelson mentioned: “I perceive why I used to be sacked.”
Mandelson says persevering with friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was ‘horrible mistake’
Peter Mandelson was then questioned about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and requested about why he continued to be buddies with him after his conviction.
Mandelson replied:
It was a most horrible mistake on my half.
I believed the story he advised in 2008 in his first indictment in Florida. I accepted his story and I want I hadn’t.
I gave my help to any individual as a result of I believed what he was telling me and it was misplaced loyalty.
Mandelson was sacked in September over leaked emails during which he expressed his help for Jeffrey Epstein and urged him to “struggle for early launch” in 2008 whereas the disgraced financier was going through expenses of soliciting intercourse from minors. The tranche of emails revealed the pair had maintained contact till 2010.
