This from @georgeeaton.bsky.social is more on what I was trying to say here… www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

My read tonight including what I think is an growing belief among the 2024 intake that none of current options for leadership are up to it, and they are starting to look among their own ranks www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Gonna need to see a bit more detail soon from the Met Police about what exactly is being prejudiced by not releasing these docs when there is no active proceedings or charges.

How Peter Mandelson turned to Jeffrey Epstein for advice on "highly paid" roles with companies such as BP and Glencore, beginning with days of Labour being kicked out in 2010. The cover letter to Glencore makes for a particularly obsequious read. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In our exc tonight - How cabinet minsters viewed govt amendment as a mistake How Angela Rayner brokered the deal to save government from defeat - again “If Ange ran tonight she’d get the numbers,” says one MP.

Our story tonight “We need all the poison to come out.” Labour MPs have warned that Keir Starmer’s days as prime minister are numbered after a day of fury over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his friendship with Jeffery Epstein. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

NEW - A manuscript amendment has been agreed, govt source say. It will give the Mandelson papers that are prejudicial to national security or international relations to the Intelligence and Security Committee. A real scramble to reassure Labour MPs.

Yet again, it seems like the government will be saved from defeat by its own MPs from the quick political judgment of Angela Rayner.

I have never seen anger like this on the Labour benches in private and in public. This is the kind of territory where things can move very fast.

Wes Streeting saying on Today that Mandelson is ‘not the man we thought he was’ but the trouble is, he is exactly the man we thought, just on a much worse scale than almost anyone thought. And there is an alternative world where none of this is this govt’s problem, because they never gave him a job

The osteopaths are very unhappy www.osteopathy.org.uk/news-and-res...

Reckon we’re going to need to hear from Mike Skinner soon about whether he thinks this truly is it for Mandelson

BREAKING - Mandelson to step down from the Lords. He retains the title which only an act of parliament can remove www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Starmer gets officials to draft legislation to remove Mandelson's peerage, as No 10 asks police to investigate his leaks to Epstein - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Understand Tories won't create or back a bill to remove Mandelson's peerage. There is unease among politicians in Westminster about the precedent of a government using its large majority to go after individuals, no matter how egregious. But mechanisms should still be there to expel him.

the problem with this newfound “bursary” argument aired in the Times is this: twhen we first heard about these payments in September a person close to Mandelson said it couldn’t possibly be the case and, er, threatened to sue us

Breaking from Met Police on Mandelson: “The Met has received a number of reports relating to alleged misconduct in a public office. The reports will all be reviewed to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.”

Sources tell me (as per @hzeffman.bsky.social) that John Pond who was copied into the emails forwarded to Epstein was in fact Gordon Brown - a code name for aides stored in their contacts. Emails intended for the prime minister went directly to the disgraced financier.

Three parties - SNP, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru - now asking for the police to investigate Mandelson. Hard to recall a worse public scandal than a cabinet minister allegedly colluding with foreign bankers to share market sensitive info and encourage threats against Chancellor

🚨BREAKING - Gordon Brown says he has asked the Cabinet Secretary "to investigate the disclosure of confidential and market sensitive information" allegedly from Mandelson Says he asked the cabinet office to investigate this in September and department found no record.

Explosive from @faisalislam.bsky.social about that call that did take place with Dimon and Darling.

Alistair Darling and the official Treasury were always aware that investment banks had an inside track to Number 10. But the brazen nature of that inside track is rather breath-taking.

Still such a remarkable quote www.ft.com/content/085e...

this is the most obvious attempt to change the narrative ever, and the letter is objectively quite funny

Genuinely curious to understand why so many Labour MPs backed the Waspi cause - one with such limited merit - other than that being the kind of thing one does in opposition. I’d love to read a long read on the campaign and how the cause became so widespread…

📣 EXC - Assisted dying bill backers are preparing to use the Parliament Act to force through the law if it is blocked by peers. Tonight in the @theguardian.com they set out how they can do that. The move is a significant escalation as Lords looks set to talk out the bill

📣 EXC - Assisted dying bill backers are preparing to use the Parliament Act to force through the law if it is blocked by peers. Tonight in the @theguardian.com they set out how they can do that. The move is a significant escalation as Lords looks set to talk out the bill

Got to stop humming Gorton and Denton to the tune of Eleanor Rigby

Exc - A row between government departments has broken out after the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) proposed cutting all its funding for physical education in schools, the Guardian understands. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

The only region of the country which thinks Keir Starmer would be better than Andy Burnham is the north east. Great to see regional rivalry is alive and well.

MPs are whispering about a non-binding confidence vote - like the one held in 2016 for Jeremy Corbyn- and how that could be part of a strategy for a leadership challenge. But how will the soft left react to one post-May, if their candidates are not ready to run? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Timing is everything - as everyone in Labour frustrated with Keir Starmer is finding out... www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

People need to stop saying psychodrama, that’s not what it means.

Surprised at the Polanski decision not to run. He’s as much from Gorton and Denton as Andy Burnham is (not much, but at least adjacent) and he could do with being in Parliament.

**** Labour’s NEC blocks Andy Burnham from standing in Gorton by-election**^^

NEW: Andy Burnham *blocked* from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Of nine voting members on NEC group was 8-1 against him.

Burnham would

Actively creating these kinds of conspiracy theories is just evil. This is how paths start to someone getting killed.

EXC - MPs and peers who backed the assisted dying bill now believe it is “near impossible” for it to pass the House of Lords in time because of procedural obstacles used by opponents. “It is our system at its absolute most dysfunctional,” one MP said. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Re Burnham - A note of caution on the three person NEC panel - yes you can stack the panel. But the decision of that panel has to get the nod from the full NEC. The body has intervened to add to the shortlist in the past. So unions will be important. They may decide to show some muscle.

BREAKING - Andrew Gwynne resigns "It has been the honour of my life to have been an elected representative for almost exactly three decades." He says his GP has described him as "extremely vulnerable" and recommends his retirement on medical grounds.

EXC - MPs and peers who backed the assisted dying bill now believe it is “near impossible” for it to pass the House of Lords in time because of procedural obstacles used by opponents. “It is our system at its absolute most dysfunctional,” one MP said. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Burnham hopeful camp says "they always cave." Which is a fair counterargument! But a couple of Labour sources say that there is a realisation that Badenoch looked strong and decisive when she put the boot into an obvious rival. Starmer might look at that and think maybe a fight is fine?

👇 My experience also. And not just a factional thing: as one Starmer critic on the NEC said ‘we really are broke, it really isn’t an unreasonable ask that we not have a GMCA byelection”. (paraphrasing)

Have asked a number of NEC members to tell me the chances Andy Burnham has of being selected to fight a by-election. Every single one says zero.

EXC - Andrew Gwynne signs Commons deal that could pave way back for Andy Burnham MP’s pension settlement with parliament allows him to potentially retire and call by-election in Gorton and Denton from @pippacrerar.bsky.social me and @joshhalliday.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

New - Nigel Farage has been found by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to have made 17 standards breaches, adding up to over £380,000 in late declarations. He’s apologised, so no further investigation (which seems unusual for a breach this large)

NEW - The UK government has approved the construction of a vast new Chinese embassy complex in east London, despite concerns about security and its impact on political exiles in the capital. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The thing I’ve enjoyed the most about the Brooklyn Beckham story is lots of Americans in the comments assuming he put his nanny on the top table at the wedding over his mother, when he talks about Nanny Sandra