Starmer: It was my mistake appointing Mandelson – UK politics live
Starmer: It was my mistake appointing Peter Mandelson
Keir Starmer has told reporters in Northern Ireland that “it was me that made the mistake” in appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador “and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein”.
It is the prime minister’s first comments on Mandelson since the release of the files relating to his appointment yesterday afternoon.
He said:
The release of the information shows what was known. That led to further questions being asked.
Unfortunately, because of the Metropolitan police investigation, we can’t release that information yet.
But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was me that made a mistake, and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein, and I do that.
Key events
After Hannah Spencer delivered her maiden speech, Melanie Ward, Labour MP for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, joked to the trained plumber and plasterer that the Palace of Westminster was “in need of some maintenance”.
“It’s entirely possible that both her plumbing and plastering skills will come in useful in the very near future,” she said.
Hannah Spencer listed the names of women that are honoured by the people of Manchester, saying they “give a nod” to the statue of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, and remember activist Hannah Mitchell, trade unionist Mary Quaile and mill worker Annie Kenney.
“And of course, Elsie Plant, who’s from just down the road from me and who I named one of my beautiful greyhounds after,” said Spencer, on the suffragette and activist who lived in Stockport.
She continued:
I think of these brilliant women a lot, and especially today as we debate International Women’s Day. And I think of many others too, from pits, slums and factories, the women who changed the system so that I could be here, the women of colour whose names we will never know because history it didn’t bother to recognise or remember them. But we do today because without their struggle and their fight and their determination to stick together, none of this could be possible.
Hannah Spencer makes maiden speech in parliament during International Women’s Day debate
Over in parliament, we have heard Hannah Spencer, the newly elected Green party MP for Gorton and Denton, make her maiden speech during a debate marking International Women’s Day.
She said:
Four weeks ago today, I was in college a plumber learning how to plaster. And today I’m in parliament as an MP.
And being here is the honour of my life. But I don’t want this to be unusual or exceptional. I truly believe that anyone doing a job like mine should get a seat on these benches.
And where I’m from, we’re taught to look after each other, to look out for each other, to stick up for each other, and to stick together, to see each other as human.
And I’m so proud of that humanity, and that people in Gorton and Denton, and Burnage, and Levenshulme, and Longsight, and Abby Hey, feel that way too. It’s in our blood and in our bones. We see each other as human.
Scotland’s former nursing chief quits police authority after ‘Disneyland’ row
Severin Carrell
In Scotland, the former Scottish chief nursing officer who was roundly condemned after reportedly offering to placate grieving relatives with enough money for a Disneyland holiday has quit as chair of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).
In the run-up to May’s Holyrood election, Fiona McQueen became a lightening rod for criticisms by relatives and opposition leaders of the dismissive NHS response to the deaths of people from infections caught at Queen Elizabeth university hospital (QUEH) in Glasgow.
While chief nursing officer, McQueen was said to have asked in December 2019 why Greater Glasgow & Clyde health board did not offer the families £50,000, which would cover the costs of a trip to Disneyland in Florida, instead of denying responsibility.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, described her alleged remarks as “utterly shameful”. He has repeatedly accused the Scottish government of pressuring the health board into opening the hospital too early, just before the 2015 general election, and of ignoring evidence it was unsafe.
McQueen said she had no recollection of making them, and has denied claims by one family that she offered them £20,000 and a holiday during a phone call in 2019.
However it emerged today that she has stepped down as SPA chair with immediate effect for family and personal reasons.
Separately, the Crown Office is investigating seven deaths at the QEUH and its attached children’s hospital following infections linked to contaminated water supplies and ventilation systems. The infections are also at the centre of a six-year-long public inquiry.
Angela Constance, the Scottish justice secretary, thanked McQueen for her “commitment to good governance, openness, transparency, and ensuring that people are at the heart of decision making has been central to the SPA’s progress”.
Starmer says he is determined to ‘clamp down’ on people ‘getting ripped off’ on their energy bills in Northern Ireland
The prime minister is in Belfast where he met with leaders from across Northern Ireland’s political parties ahead of a UK-Ireland summit taking place in Cork in the Republic of Ireland.
Keir Starmer said he would help people in Northern Ireland struggling with the cost of living and that he was determined to “clamp down” on consumers “getting ripped off” on their energy bills.
The PA news agency reported him as saying he would speak to the Treasury would “coordinate” with the Northern Ireland executive on the matter.
“We need to react as quickly and as appropriately as possible in relation to this,” he said.
“And I’m really, really determined that where people are getting ripped off, we clamp down on this really early on. Because the last thing you need in a situation like this is people paying over the odds because somebody else is actually ripping them off.”
He added: “I can assure you and everybody watching that this is absolutely on my radar, on my team’s radar.
“I know how acutely important it is here, particularly in Northern Ireland.”
He refused to “get drawn into who’s right and who’s wrong” about the activation of an £81m fund for Northern Ireland energy consumers.
The economy minister in Northern Ireland, Caoimhe Archibald, said the £81m fund cannot make its way to consumers until parliament “amends the Energy Prices Act 2022. This is expected at some point before the summer recess”.
Starmer said: “There are different views as to why that hasn’t translated into money off bills yet.
“I see my job as just making sure that we do what we can, to make sure that whatever needs to be done is done, to make sure that is translated into money off bills as quickly as possible.”
He added: “I’m not going to get drawn into who’s right and who’s wrong because I think for people who are worried about their bills, I think they’d be saying ‘just get on, work with others and make sure it does translate into money off my bills’.”
Starmer: It was my mistake appointing Peter Mandelson
Keir Starmer has told reporters in Northern Ireland that “it was me that made the mistake” in appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador “and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein”.
It is the prime minister’s first comments on Mandelson since the release of the files relating to his appointment yesterday afternoon.
He said:
The release of the information shows what was known. That led to further questions being asked.
Unfortunately, because of the Metropolitan police investigation, we can’t release that information yet.
But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was me that made a mistake, and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein, and I do that.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said Peter Mandelson should return his severance payment.
When asked by journalists at the Scottish Parliament if Mandelson should return the payment, Sarwar said:
Absolutely, I mean this is a man who has proven to be a traitor to his country.
He’s proven to be a traitor to many of his former colleagues, although that’s of less importance, he’s someone that should never have been considered or appointed as ambassador and he should do the right thing and return the money that he got as a payment.
Legislation to strip Peter Mandelson of his title could be broadened out to include any peer who has broken the rules, Downing Street has said.
Keir Starmer’s spokesman told reporters:
The prime minister has asked officials to draft legislation which allows Peter Mandelson’s peerage to be removed as quickly as possible.
The government’s preference is to bring forward legislation that could be applied to any peer who has breached the rules and brought the other place into disrepute, rather than Mandelson specifically.
We have begun the work of looking at the scope and ability for such a Bill to be introduced.
But a Bill of that nature has not been brought before Parliament since 1478, so we are working on that, and we are liaising with the House authorities to ensure that we get this right.
People are “getting ripped off” over the price of oil to heat their homes, the prime minister has said.
Speaking in Belfast, Keir Starmer said:
I’ve asked the Treasury minister to talk to the [Northern Ireland] Executive here about oil-based heating in homes, and how we can co-ordinate our response to this because of the prices increasing because of Iran, and get our arms around that.
The other thing I’m worried about is that some people are getting ripped off in the costs of the oil to heat their houses, and we’ve got to bear down on any ripping off at all.
We’ll do all that we can in relation to this. I am acutely aware that this is the single most important issue for many people across Northern Ireland.
Downing Street denies ‘cover-up’ in Mandelson documents
Downing Street has denied leaving key details out of government files relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US released yesterday.
The PA news agency reported Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson as saying there was no “cover-up” after a comment box in the due diligence report reserved for his response was left blank.
The prime minister did not write any notes on the document, therefore nothing was redacted, PA reported.
Starmer’s spokesperson said: “I refute the suggestion of a cover-up. The government’s complied fully. I just don’t accept that it’s the case at all.
“There are a range of different ways in which the prime minister’s senior team responds to advice.
He added: “The prime minister did read the advice, but clearly there are lessons to be learned on the wider appointment processes, and the processes that led up to them.”
It comes after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch claimed this morning that key details were missing from the documents. She told PA: “I’ve been a minister and a secretary of state, the comments which Keir Starmer would have put on the box notes – those are the cover notes where you explain what you want to happen – are missing.
“They have been removed. We need the full details of what the prime minister did. There is still a cover-up going on.”
‘Ball is in their court’: Ministers urge Scottish government to match funding for defence colleges
Severin Carrell
Elsewhere, the UK government has called on Scottish ministers to help fund two new defence technical colleges in Scotland, accusing ministers in Edinburgh of failing to invest enough in military industrial training.
Luke Pollard, the UK’s defence readiness minister, and Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would spend £20m in setting up defence technical excellence colleges (DTEC) in east and west central Scotland if that was match-funded by the devolved Scottish government.
That funding promise came as part of a £50m “defence growth deal” for Scotland, where the MoD is attempting to expand and reinvigorate defence manufacturing in response to the increasing security threats facing the UK and Nato. The MoD says it already spends £2bn a year in Scotland.
Their initiative puts defence on the electoral agenda before May’s Holyrood elections. Labour believes the Scottish National party has been too resistant to military spending, despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its sorties close to UK airspace, terrorist attacks against UK and European civilian targets blamed on Russia, and successive crises in the Middle East.
In other economic policy areas, particularly the closure of Grangemouth’s oil refinery early last year, both governments have worked very closely on college and jobs investments. This time, the MoD has announced its DTEC strategy without Scottish government support, although Pollard insisted Scottish officials were aware of the MoD’s skills investment plans.
Pollard and Alexander said despite record defence order books for Scotland, including a £10bn frigate contract with Norway centred on BAE Systems shipyards in Glasgow, Rosyth had had to hire foreign welders because of a Scottish skills shortage.
The MoD also stepped in to fund an £11m specialist welders training centre Rolls Royce wanted to set up in Glasgow after Scottish ministers failed to do so, citing a Scottish policy not to back defence companies linked to munitions manufacture and Israel Defense Forces contracts.
Speaking at a defence investment conference near Glasgow airport on Thursday, Alexander said:
The Scottish government have taken a different approach to defence skills in recent years than the UK government, but we’re making a good faith offer today to join us in recognising that in the circumstances where the threat environment has changed significantly for the UK in recent years, not least in the Euro-Atlantic security area, that the right and responsible course is to make sure that young Scots have the skills that they need to make a meaningful contribution to, not just our defence industrial base, but our national security going forward.
So having made this offer today, the ball’s in the court of the Scottish government to decide whether they want to recognise that responsibility and match the funding commitment that we’ve made as a UK government.
The Scottish government has been approached for comment.
Growing disquiet over Mandelson’s £75,000 severance pay, with suggestions he should donate to charity
MPs have voiced anger over the severance payout Peter Mandelson received after he was sacked as ambassador to the US last year, with some suggesting he should donate it to a charity supporting victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse.
Government documents released yesterday relating to Mandelson’s appointment showed he received £75,000 as severance pay, after initially asking for more than half a million pounds.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said he should not have received anything. “If someone has been dishonest and lied, you don’t give them a severance payment,” she said. “So something very dodgy has happened.”
Cabinet minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said the taxpayer-funded payout was “value for money”, considering Mandelson requested £547,000 which was negotiated down to £75,000.
But he added that “from a moral point of view, it is incredibly difficult to even think that that money is still being retained”, and suggested that it should be donated to a charity supporting Epstein victims, saying it would be “the decent thing” to do.
Scotland secretary Douglas Alexander said Mandelson should give the money up. “I would urge him to do so,” he said. “Whether that’s to charities or to others working in the area of the exploitation of women.
“We need to recognise that the primary victims in this instance and the people who are most betrayed were the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.”
