On 14 September, business secretary Peter Kyle did the best he could to defend his boss Keir Starmer. Given that Starmer had knowingly hired an associate of the notorious paedophile Jeffry Epstein, there was only so much he could do. Even with that in mind, Kyle did a particularly bad job defending the indefensible, and he’s now been pressed on the matter:
‘You said, “his singular talents were worth the risk of hiring him”. Do you stand by that now?’@robbierinder and @kategarraway question Business Secretary Peter Kyle’s comments on former British Ambassador, Peter Mandelson. pic.twitter.com/3bHcHKpWsV
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) September 19, 2025
‘Worth the risk’
Speaking to the BBC‘s Laura Kuenssberg on 14 September, Kyle said this on the then-unfolding Mandelson scandal:
All I can do is reveal what the facts are – that the emails revealed a material difference between what Number 10… believed at the time of the appointment, and that the vet – the vetting process, which is independent, and run by the Cabinet Office – was able to conclude based on the evidence; there’s a material difference between the two.
While it’s certainly the case that things look bad since the emails came out, there was nothing in them that was worse than what we all already knew – that Mandelson continued his association with Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender, as we reported in 2003.
On the same day that Kyle said the above, he told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips:
BREAKING: Business and trade secretary Peter Kyle defends the PM’s decision to appoint Lord Mandelson, stating that it was deemed “worth the risk”
🔗Read morehttps://t.co/gD4W77g5kp pic.twitter.com/K1zZFGDYaO
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 14, 2025
What a strange comment.
Unless we’re missing something, the ‘risk’ was that it came out Epstein was trafficking victims to Mandelson.
We don’t care how good Mandelson was at schmoozing Donald Trump, that’s not a risk we should be taking, surely?
If that’s not what the risk was, we’d love to hear Kyle explain what he actually meant (spoiler alert: he never will).
Earlier today, Kyle went on Good Morning Britain to brag about the UK’s new trade ‘deal’ with America. If you’re unfamiliar with the deal, we covered it here, including commentary from those who think it’s an opportunity for US firms to asset strip Britain:
One economist said “Starmer has been well and truly shafted” as fears mount that the UK has just stumbled into an asset stripping deal
By @willem_moore_uk https://t.co/eRxDmAFwbG
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) September 19, 2025
During the ITV interview, host Rob Rinder said to Kyle:
You’ve been in place as… business secretary for a short period of time, but a lot of the deal was done… by… ambassador Peter Mandelson. Um you talk about due diligence and the processes being in place. He was sacked after having connections… with a convicted child sex trafficker. You said his singular talents were worth the risk of of hiring him. Do you do do you stand by that now?
Would you believe he didn’t stand by this comment?
Or, to be more accurate, he refused to answer the question at all.
He did say this, though:
But look, uh, let’s just focus on the fact, because there was a lot of focus on this over the course of an entire week.
On 14 September, Kyle infamously accused the media of not properly investigating Mandelson; now, he’s arguing they’re investigating the story too much.
Are you for real, man?
This is what he said then:
Peter Kyle spreading the sh*t around: “Peter Mandelson had appeared on Newsnight just this year.. and he was not questioned about Epstein once”
He was on #BBCLaurak a couple of times last year and Kuenssberg never asked him, either. Why didn’t you, @bbclaurak? https://t.co/6c0MvAgUIl pic.twitter.com/E5Erx2lVnF
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) September 14, 2025
Not going away
If Labour think they’ll ever have to stop answering for Starmer’s decision to hire Mandelson, they’re dreaming.
True, journalists were slow to get on it, but now it’s out there, it will just keep popping up in one form or another like a sordid whack-a-mole. It might not be the scandal which forces Starmer out, but it’s certainly one of them.
In the meantime, we’ll continue to update you on the contradictory statements of Peter Kyle.
Featured image via ITV
