What a day in politics it has been. I think this is the biggest scandal in at least 100 years. It is so rare to see, in British politics, a financial corruption scandal that goes to the heart of government.
Peter Mandelson, as Secretary of State for Trade, was leaking Government secrets to a foreign paedophile at the point he was leaking them. It was already known that Epstein was a paedophile.
He had been to prison for molesting a 14-year-old girl, and Peter Mandelson was telling him the innermost thoughts of Her Majesty’s Government.
Then Keir Starmer appoints him Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America.
New Labour thinks the corruption within our politics has become so profound that it could appoint somebody to manipulate our relationship with the United States, even though it knew his relationship with Epstein had not finished when Epstein was found to be a criminal.
Now, if you look at society, of course you cannot know that your friends, your acquaintances and the people that you meet may have done things wrong in the past until they are found guilty by a court of law.
People are entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. The problem with Mandelson is that Epstein had already been found guilty and guilty of the most revolting crime.
And Mandelson not only gives him secrets, but his then boyfriend, now husband, gets money from Epstein during this period.
This is such obvious, deep-seated corruption. What does it compare to? It compares possibly to the Marconi scandal, when Lloyd George traded on inside information and there was a whitewash report to clear him.
It compares to some of the scandals in the 18th century, when we had a very different form of Government and people made a lot of money out of being in politics.
And it goes right the way through the system, because Peter Mandelson is so important to the Labour Party.
Only three Labour leaders since the early 1980s have steered clear of Peter Mandelson, and they were John Smith, Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband, Neil Kinnock, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer all allowed Mandelson to be an intimate of their operations, a key player.
Starmer was very pleased with the appointment. Thought it was going well.
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Got the trade deal done thanks to Mandelson’s ability to charm Donald Trump, to get round him, to use his snake-oil salesman techniques to get what the British Government wanted. This seemed to be good.
But Sir Keir Starmer knew, the public knew, it was on the public record that Mandelson had maintained his relationship with Epstein after Epstein had been found guilty.
And this brings the scandal right back to the Prime Minister and to the Prime Minister’s judgement. What was he doing?
Appointing a man who had been disgraced several times for a financial scandal, for an influence scandal, and for dealing with a sex pest scandal as our ambassador.
How degrading is that to the standing of the United Kingdom on the world stage? What can our friends in Washington think, that the Prime Minister of this country thought it suitable to send somebody who was friendly hobnobbing with a paedophile after he had been found guilty?
And then some of the pictures come out and you see the smoking gun that yes, Mandelson may have misled people. But when those pictures came out, you knew that the relationship was deep and close.
How many of you viewers have been photographed in your underpants at a friend’s house?
I think that is a very odd type of picture to have. I know you may not all be like me and insist on wearing a suit at all times of the day and most of the night, but isn’t that just weird and sleazy?
Doesn’t that indicate a closeness of relationship? That is strange, to say the least, and that has just added more information to what we already knew.
And this leaves the Government in a state of stasis. It cannot do anything. It is flatlining. The Prime Minister has no moral authority left.
It was taken from him once he appointed Peter Mandelson and Mandelson’s dreadful behaviour was discovered every last detail of it unearthed.
This is bad for Britain. Let’s not pretend it is good for our country to have our Prime Minister shamed in this way by the person he appointed. It is terrible for the Labour Party.
The Prime Minister’s judgement shames Labour, but so does the influence of Peter Mandelson in New Labour, going all the way back to the 1990s.
This is a scandal we should all remember, as our parents talked about Profumo and how that brought down Harold Macmillan.
We and our grandchildren will talk about how Peter Mandelson brought scandal, shame and ignominy upon the British nation and forced a Prime Minister out of office.