Political scandals usually follow a script. Someone close to power falls from grace – a minister, an adviser, an ambassador. The leader expresses shock and disappointment.
They insist they didn’t know – and often they’re telling the truth. The damage is real but containable, because it amounts to a failure of judgement, not character. It’s trust misplaced, rather than knowingly granted to someone compromised.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer cannot say he didn’t know about Peter Mandelson when he appointed him as ambassador – because everyone knew about Peter Mandelson.
They knew he had been forced to resign from Tony Blair’s cabinet in 1998 over…