Is it possible that Mandelson might bring Starmer down?

[CurlewKate]

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Sorry not clear - interesting I didn’t mention what?

Gosh, what a 24hrs its been 😬

The embedding of Palantir in every government department was done at the behest of Cummings and Gove many years ago. Its not new or even remotely recent and the contracts with the NHS were agreed before the last general election.

These are long term contracts as well as the products being in use. It would cost a huge amount to reverse the work and replatform everything onto another platform (assuming you could find one which meets your preferences).

What they have done is made a big push on Sovereign cloud and AI which mitigates many of the concerns raised.

It really has…!

Well you could say that about many of those lesser scandals involving Conservatives. But Labour always made such a stink about them....

As summarised in the Telegraph podcast...

Palantir are a US firm that makes technology that enables you to deport migrants and kill with drones. Palantir are a big client of Global Counsel where Peter M is a large shareholder.

Keir Starmer went with Peter M (Peter M organised the meeting) to visit them and very unusually no notes or official record were made of that visit. No one knows what happened at that meeting.

In December 2024 Palantir are awarded a £240million contract by the MOD for quote data at the expense of a British company that wasnt awarded it.

Im quite sure its all.above board, having been organised by Peter Mandelson, him being so honest and all and never interested in doing favours for rich people... But I know Labour have historically been hot on disapproval of contracts for mates/firms....just thought id mention it...

Interesting. Probably so.

WTH

Just read this too

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/04/peter-mandelson-palantir-jeffrey-epstein-government

@1dayatatime
‘It‘s cerainly not helpful to Starmer. But what will finish him is an ongoing constant stream of negative news that detracts attention from the actual running of Government’
Agreed - I’d really love to see this level of scrutiny into Farage, Johnson’s appointment of Lord Lebedev, foreign interference and influence on UK politics etc. I feel that we’re being manipulated - again.

Not a patch on this one. Apparently the biggest scandal since Profumo. And its all in writing.

I've just remembered that Peter Mandelson was business secretary when Lebedev senior purchased the Evening Standard;

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jan/22/evening-standard-peter-mandelson

My point is that we won’t know because the ones that I referred to under the previous government will not get anywhere near the same level of scrutiny.

However, this is Starmer and a Labour government so the right wing media have put them under the microscope since day one whilst ignoring other issues so……..

I don’t think the left wing media are too impressed at the moment either though!

How? Starmers judgement is on appointing Mandelson as US Ambassador, 12 months ago..... Mandelson passed on secrets a decade or so ago, before Starmer was even an MP and so far, Epstein is not yet proven to have been a Russian spy.

I think you've read a few too many le Carre novels....

I think you're wrong. Theres plenty of left wing press that would love to find a scoop on Farage for example as big as this one. Hes had more scrutiny than anyone during the 30 years in politics. So wishful thinking really. Its important to not try and misdirect on this one I think. There are real victims and potential serious crimes.

Addiotinally this one is unfortunately supported with an enormous amount of written evidence rather than simply he said she said.

I do enjoy a Le Carre novel that is true.

Let's just sit back and wait what more comes out. I admire your faith that Peter Mandelson has been behaving himself since 2015 and so Keir Starmer was perfectly reasonable to bring him into government. I think you are in the minority of everyone else though, including the Labour Party.

By definition a novel cannot be true.

I think @Alexandra2001 meant that I had read too many novels so am seeing things that aren't there in real life. Not that I want to speak for her of course. Or you, as I'm not sure what your post is aimed at either.

You said you enjoyed a novel that’s true. It’s an oxymoron, a novel by its very definition is fiction.

Yes we know. But I just explained what I thought she meant by it? Anyway forget it. I cant start explaining the posts of other people, particularly those I usually disagree with on most things. That would be a pretty pass!

I think there is an element of hysteria to this story. Let's be clear the criticism of Starmer is in that there was insufficient due diligence on Mandelson before appointing him as the UK Ambassador to the US. To be fair Starmer would not have been doing the DD himself- that would have been given to a specialist team, so that's not directly Starmer's fault.

Also going by the level of news coverage you would think that it was Starmer who was chums with Epstein and hanging out at his island. Whereas in reality Starmer just knew someone who was (Mandelson) and gave him a job.

Sadly it's another example of the level of polarisation in today's politics where facts don't matter, what matters is which political camp you are in.

If you think its "hysteria" you havent been paying attention. What did Profumo do? Pass on state secrets to someone who then passed them on to the Russians. What did Mandelson do? We will just have to wait and see but the first part of the story has repeated itself already. And he was also passing market moving material. Eg Epstein knew before any of us that Gordon Brown was resigning.
There's an awful lot more to this than KS poor judgement.

No not at all. Don’t downplay it.

For the lack of a comma, a snit begins!

@Pineneedlesincarpet
’Theres plenty of left wing press that would love to find a scoop on Farage for example as big as this one. Hes had more scrutiny than anyone during the 30 years in politics. So wishful thinking really. Its important to not try and misdirect on this one I think. There are real victims and potential serious crimes.
Addiotinally this one is unfortunately supported with an enormous amount of written evidence rather than simply he said she said.’

I think that you are profoundly wrong there. Any queries re Farage and Boris do not get anywhere near the coverage that Starmer has had since day one. It’s not ‘misdirect’ as you call it, just an observation that they are treated very differently.
For example, anyone would think that Starmer’s name is in the files instead of Farage being mentioned multiple times…..

This really isn’t the case. You do know why there’s an issue with Starmer, Mandelson and Epstein links?