If you’re interested in this episode, you may also like ‘How should Sarwar deal with Starmer?’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002k35n

Will Sir Keir Starmer survive the Peter Mandelson scandal? Well that was a question for Anas Sarwar today – and the Scottish Labour leader did not exactly give the Prime Minister an emphatic defence.

But how did it get to this? Why has Peter Mandelson been so central to Labour politics for so long, what influence has he had in Scotland and what will become of Starmer’s government?

Martin Geissler and Natalie Higgins speak to Simon Pia – a Labour advisor during the Gordon Brown years, who had a front row seat in government at the time Peter Mandelson was sending information to his friend, the disgraced paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.

Scotcast is the BBC’s Scottish news podcast. This episode is hosted by Martin Geissler and Natalie Higgins.

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