Keir Starmer to face vote on Mandelson vetting inquiry, as key figures set to give evidence to MPs
Next week’s elections across Britain are the crucial context herepublished at 08:25 BST
Chris Mason
Political editor
Good morning from the Scottish Borders. Sweeps of rolling hills and dense evergreen patches of woodland are zipping past the train windows to both the left and the right.
Yes, you read that right on this day of high drama at Westminster. I’m not there.
Bad timing, etc etc, but it is also a reminder of the crucial political context of today’s events — a pivotal set of elections a week on Thursday across Britain. I spent yesterday in Falkirk and Edinburgh and I’ll spend today and tomorrow in Cardiff and Caerphilly, compiling reports you’ll be able to see, listen to and read over the weekend.
The elections to Holyrood and the Senedd matter hugely in Scotland and Wales respectively and there are local elections in many parts of England too.
All the contests matter for their own sake but they matter too for Keir Starmer’s future.
He and the government are arguing today’s debate in the Commons has to be seen through the prism of the elections – they see the whole thing as a political stunt from the Conservatives.
But remember the evidence of Philip Barton, the former lead civil servant at the Foreign Office, and Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s former chief of staff, was already scheduled for today.
They will each appear in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. From the perspective of Labour MPs, the Lord Mandelson saga never seems to go away – and that, for them, is bad news – and doubly so given next week’s elections.
