Watch the moment Camilla Tominey has slapped down a top Labour Minister during a heated grilling over Sir Keir Starmer’s handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal.
The scandal-stricken ex-ambassador to the US has said he would step down from the Lords after being fired from his diplomatic role back in September over his links with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
He allegedly leaked market-sensitive Government information, as well as the upcoming resignation of then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to the sex offender.
The Metropolitan Police has since launched an investigation into the matter. Lord Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
But his exile from Parliament has failed to absolve Sir Keir after the Prime Minister revealed he knew about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with the sex trafficker before his appointment in a damning rendition of Prime Minister’s Questions.
Now, questions are being raised about Sir Keir’s judgement, leading to a number of furious backbenchers to call for his resignation – as well as that of his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney.
Joining the GB News star on Sunday morning, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Pat McFadden insisted the ex-Labour Minister was appointed because No10 was looking for a politican, rather than a diplomat, to engage with the Trump administration.
Citing Lord Mandelson’s “unique talents” he told Camilla: “Trade was going to be the critical issue with the new administration.
Pat McFadden told GB News Lord Mandelson had ‘portrayed himself as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein’
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GB NEWS
“Peter Mandelson had been a European Union Trade commissioner in the past until towards the end of that time, when Gordon Brown brought him back to join the Cabinet as the head of the business department.
“So I think it was a combination of the political and trade experience that made the Prime Minister think he was the right person for the job.”
But Camilla did not appear to buy his response, firing back: “But he knew of his chequered history. His chequered history was no secret.
“He had been twice fired from Government, and the Prime Minister knew both that he had stayed in the home of a convicted paedophile while he was in prison in 2009, and they maintained a relationship with him after he left prison.
“All of this was known.”
Keir Starmer claimed Peter Mandelson misled him over his links to Jeffrey Epstein | PA
While Mr McFadden agreed Lord Mandelson had “that chequered past”, he speculated: “But I suspect that Mr Mandelson told the Prime Minister there was nothing to this relationship, that it was much smaller than we now realise it was.
“I suspect he portrayed himself as some sort of victim of Epstein who’d been duped rather than the reality of what we’ve seen in the emails that have been published in the last week or so.”
Again, Camilla remained unconvinced, telling the Minister: “But it doesn’t matter how Peter Mandelson justified the relationship.
“The facts of the matter are as follows. This is a man who had been repeatedly embroiled in scandals. He’d been twice fired from Government.
“The Prime Minister knew that he stayed with a convicted paedophile, while that paedophile was in prison, and then maintained a relationship with him afterwards… Does it really matter the nature of the relationship?
“He had a friendship with a convicted paedophile. You also, by your own admission, appointed this guy precisely because of his reputation for wheeling and dealing, being a prince of darkness, being a dark Lord.
“And now our audience, the GB News audience, who, by the way, could work out Peter Mandelson in a matter of seconds, are meant to believe that the Prime Minister has been taken in? He had the facts in front of him Mr. McFadden!”
The Pensions Secretary argued the peer was an active participant in public life at the time of appointment, appearing on multiple TV channels.
“This isn’t someone who had been hounded out of public life because of this chequered past. And I think we are looking at this to some extent with the knowledge of what’s been exposed in the last week, as though all of that was known at the time,” he responded.
But his argument spurred on a vicious tirade from the GB News star.
She started: “All that needed to be known by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister constantly reminds us that he was the former Director of Public Prosecutions.
“This is a man that has spent his entire career dealing with individuals that may consider to have had nefarious or shady pasts.
“He’s presented with evidence that someone he is appointing to a plum role – probably the most significant role in British diplomacy has got connections to a convicted paedophile.
“And still he goes ahead with his appointment. The details are irrelevant.
“People watching and listening to GB News, if confronted with a candidate that has got a relationship with a convicted paedophile, who chooses to stay in the home of a convicted paedophile while he’s in prison, anybody with half a mind on morality and decency says, ‘do you know what? I’m sure he has got unique talents, but this isn’t the man that we appoint to this role’.
“If GB News viewers and audience members can see it, why can’t the person running the country?”