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This ‘Question Time’ panellist absolutely nails why Keir Starmer and Labour are so damaged by ever being associated with Peter Mandelson

Michael White. Updated February 7th, 2026

The scandal of Lord Peter Mandelson’s friendship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continues to rock the Labour party to its core.

It has put severe pressure on the premiership of Keir Starmer – which, let’s be frank, wasn’t in the most solid of places to begin with.

On this week’s BBC Question Time, the panel were asked: ‘Should Keir Starmer resign over the Peter Mandelson scandal?’

And panellist Oli Dugmore, a journalist with New Statesman, has gone viral for his devastating takedown of the whole sorry saga of Mandelson ever being let near the reigns of power in the Starmer government to begin with.

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He said:

“I’m generally a pretty forgiving person and I think our politics is poorer for its lack of empathy. I think most people should not be defined by the worst thing they’ve ever done in their lives and most people deserve a second chance.

“I do, however, have some moral boundaries, and one of them is I think it is wrong to have sex with children and I wouldn’t want to be friends with anyone that did that and I certainly wouldn’t want to work with them. If I did, I think you’d all be asking me questions and they’d be valid ones.

“That is apparently now a fringe position for some people at the top of the Labour party which is an extraordinary thing to be able to say.

“I don’t know about you, I don’t know any paedophiles, I don’t know anyone that’s run a sex trafficking ring, these are extraordinary things we are talking about here.

“Not only that…not only did the people at the top of the Labour party know about [Mandelson staying at Epstein’s house while Epstein was in prison] because it was available on Google, they didn’t need the security services to tell them this, they didn’t think that was disqualifying. They thought actually, ‘This is our guy’.

“This is our guy that we’re going to elevate to the most prestigious diplomatic posting that we have, we’re going to make him our man in Washington. Not only that, we’re going to bring him back to London every so often to advise on some Cabinet reshuffles, and actually when we’re choosing our candidates for the 2024 General Election, we’re going to let him put in on that too because we think he’s a great judge of character.

“Like, come on.”

Dugmore provoked nervous laughter and applause on the night, but the clip has since gone on viral on social media.

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Source: Twitter/X/bbcquestiontime