There are nerves in Whitehall over how the US will receive Starmer’s high-stakes trip to China at the end of the month. Not everyone is a fan of the Golden Keir-a…
The visit is still penned in for the end of January and Guido hears National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell – who has been leading on this – will make a pre-visit in the next ten days. Number 10 and the Foreign Office are preparing to work on how to handle US officials during the visit. A government source tells Guido there is “some worry that some of the announcements from the visit could irk Trump.” Expect investment, collaboration, and so on. What the Donald fixes on can never be anticipated…
Guido also hears Chinese are waiting for the mega-embassy decision before engaging more fully on the visit. The Tories today call the embassy a “launch pad for economic warfare.” Plans first put out by the Mail on Sunday last year and re-upped by the Telegraph today show plans for the embassy include 208 secret rooms and a hidden chamber through which there is potential access to a mass of sensitive data cables. There is another large protest on Saturday against the mega-embassy which numerous politicians are expected to attend. Planning minister Matthew Pennycook said a final decision will be made over the next week – the government is expected to wave it through…
Peter Mandelson has finally said sorry for believing Jeffrey Epstein over the paedophile’s victims. He told BBC Newsnight:
“Yesterday, I did not want to be held responsible for his crimes of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others. I was wrong to believe him following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered. I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes. Like everyone else I learned the actual truth about him after his death. But his victims did know what he was doing, their voices were not heard and I am sorry I was amongst those who believed him over them.”