Jamie Whitehead
Live reporter

In his first interview since being sacked in September, Lord Mandelson has told Laura Kuenssberg that he never saw young women while spending time with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and didn't apologise to Epstein's victims for continuing a friendship with him - something he called a terrible mistake.

He also said he thought he had been "kept separate" from the sexual side of Epstein's life because he is gay.

Kuenssberg has written in detail about her interview with the former British ambassador to the US, which you can read here.

Today’s wide-ranging episode of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg also featured the second of Laura’s new year leaders interviews. This week, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she would have no issue with foreign intervention being used to remove the current regime in Iran.

She also went into more detail on the Conservatives’ plan to ban under-16s from using social media.

And the "bread and butter issues" that people in the UK care about (potholes) was the topic of this morning's conversation with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

That's all for this week. Next Sunday, the leaders interviews continue with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage - thank you for joining us.

The Sunday morning show takes a close look at the top political issues facing the UK - but there’s even more to enjoy.

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During this morning's programme, former ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson spoke about his continued friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein's conviction.

He described their closeness as "a most terrible mistake", saying he "regrets and will regret to my dying day the fact that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect".

You can watch more of his interview in the clip below.

Let's take a look back at some of the top lines today.

In his appearance on the show, Lord Peter Mandelson said continuing his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was "a terrible mistake".

The former US ambassador also says that as a gay man, he was "kept separate from what he [Epstein] was doing in the sexual side of his life".

On Iran, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said she would not have an issue with foreign intervention being used to remove the country's regime.

She also pushed the Conservatives' proposal to ban under-16s from accessing social media, blaming tech companies for "profiting from their anxiety and distraction".

In response to reports that the UK might consider sending troops to Greenland, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described that as just "business as usual" discussions.

Alexander also spoke about the government's new announcement on potholes, which she said was a "bread and butter" issue people in the UK want to see addressed.

Peter Mandelson has had a long-running political career with the Labour party - but one that has seen a number of bumps along the way.

He began working for the Labour Party in the 1980s and later played a pivotal role in getting Tony Blair elected as party leader in 1994 - backing him over Gordon Brown.

The three men became the key architects of New Labour - the party's rebrand ahead of its landslide victory in the 1997 elections - with Mandelson subsequently given the job of minister without portfolio and then trade secretary.

By 1998, he was forced into the first of his government resignations when it was revealed he had received a secret loan of £373,000 from his ministerial colleague Geoffrey Robinson.

Less than a year later he was back in government taking on the position of Northern Ireland secretary.

In 2001, he quit that role over allegations of misconduct about a passport application for the Hinduja brothers. An inquiry later cleared him of wrongdoing.

He retained his constituency seat of Hartlepool later that same year - giving an emotive victory speech.

Two years later he quit as an MP to become the EU's trade commissioner.

Under Gordon Brown's government he was appointed business secretary and made a peer. He then went on to form an international lobbying firm when Labour lost power.

In December 2024, Starmer appointed him as the UK's ambassador to the US. He was sacked in September over his links to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after emails showed the peer sent him supportive messages after he pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in 2008.

Lord Mandelson has repeatedly said he regrets his relationship with Epstein.

Kunessberg then moves on to domestic issues.

Is a blitz to address potholes the radical change people were promised by Labour?

Alexander says the "bread and butter issues" are what people in the UK care about.

Kunessberg then asks if she agrees with the Conservatives' push to ban social media for under-16s.

Alexander says we "have to get the balance right" and make sure young people are safe, but also get the best of what digital media offers.

With that, the interview comes to an end.

Stay with us as we bring you recaps and explainers on the issues discussed today.

Kuenssberg then asks Alexander about Iran and the protests there.

She says the regime needs to do three things: protect civilian lives, protect people's fundamental freedoms - including the right to protest - and for the authorities to exercise restraint.

She describes Iran as a "hostile state" that is a destabilising presence in the Middle East.

"The priority today, I think, is a peaceful transition, if that is what the people of Iran want," Alexander says.

On Greenland, Kuenssberg says there are suggestions in the papers this morning that the UK might consider sending some troops, along with allies, to help shore up security.

Alexander says such reports are more likely just "business as usual" discussions.

She says the government agrees with Trump that the Arctic Circle is becoming increasingly contested, with the ambitions of Putin and China.

She adds it's really important the UK does all it can with all Nato allies to ensure there's an effective deterrent.

"We're not going to take any security risks," she adds.

Alexander starts the interview by responding to the just-aired interview with Mandelson.

Kuenssberg says Mandelson stated in the interview that the government knew everything about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, although they hadn't seen the emails. She asks Alexander whether Mandelson was being misleading, as that's not what the government has said.

Alexander says the new emails published in September, which included Lord Mandelson's suggestion that Epstein's first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged, were not information Keir Starmer had at the time.

Kuenssberg then asks whether Lord Mandelson should have apologised to victims for continuing his relationship with Epstein.

Alexander says: "It would have gone a long way for Peter to have apologised to the victims."

"If somebody that I was associated with was in that situation, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole."

Next up in the hot seat is Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

As we've mentioned, she's set to face questions about the government's new mapping tool, which will let drivers see how their local authority is tackling potholes, among other things.

Remember, you can follow along by ticking Watch live at the top of the page.

Lord Mandelson is asked whether he misled government when he was being considered for the role of British ambassador to the US by failing to disclose all relevant information.

• For context: Mandelson was fired by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in September after emails showed he had sent supportive messages to Epstein as he faced charges for sex offences in 2008.

Mandelson says emails between him and Epstein "came as a huge surprise and a huge shock to me", as well as to the government.

He says the emails no longer existed on his server, which had long been disused. "I was unable to share emails with [the government] that I didn't recall and I didn't possess."

Asked whether he deserved to be sacked, he says: "I understand why I was sacked."

"I understand why [Starmer] took the decision," he adds. "But one thing I'm very clear about is I'm not going to seek to reopen or re-litigate this issue. I'm moving on."

Lord Mandelson is asked whether he ever saw or heard anything that gave him any cause for concern when with Jeffrey Epstein.

He says he "never saw anything in [Epstein's] life, when I was with him, when I was in his homes, that would give me any reason to suspect what this evil monster was doing in preying on these young women".

He says that because he was "a gay man in [Epstein's] circle, I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life".

Asked if he would like to apologise to Epstein's victims for his association with him, Mandelson says: "I want to apologise for a system that refused to hear their voices and did not give them the protection they were entitled to expect."

"That system gave him protection and not them. If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise for it. But I was... I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable of what he was doing.

"I regret and will regret to my dying day the fact that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect."

Lord Mandelson is now being asked about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and why he stayed friends with him after his conviction.

"It was a most terrible mistake on my part," Mandelson says.

"I believed the story he told in 2008 in his first indictment in Florida. I accepted his story and I wish I hadn't.

"I gave my support to somebody because I believed what he was telling me and it was misplaced loyalty."

But he adds: "The crux of this is not me... The crux of this is that so many hundreds of young women were completely trapped, powerless in a system that did not listen to what they had to say."

Image source, PA Media

The conversation moves on to whether Mandelson likes Trump.

He responds with a yes, saying, "I liked his graciousness."

"That's not a word many people associate with Donald Trump," Kuenssberg says.

"No," Mandleson replies. "I know it isn't."

"I know because for many people he has a completely different image."

"At the end of the day, President Trump is an extraordinary risk-taker. And for me, in the world today, given all its conflicts and its dangers, and how I would define leadership of a country, I attach a lot of importance to somebody's preparedness to take risks."

The topic now turns to Iran.

Mandelson says he's "not sure" what Trump meant when he said the US would shoot back if the Iranian regime shoots protesters.

"But I do know that there are millions of people in Iran who want their freedom back, who want to restore their democracy, and they look to us, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and others, as their friends to give them that support when the time comes," he says.

And on Ukraine, Kuenssberg asks Mandelson whose side Trump is on.

Mandelson responds, saying the US president is on the side of "maintaining and protecting the sovereignty, freedom, and democracy of Ukraine".

She pushes back, asking Mandelson if he's convinced by that.

"I have no doubt," he says, "we have discussed it."

Lord Mandelson's interview is up next.

He is asked about US President Donald Trump's recent comments about Greenland, in which he said the US will take the territory "the easy way" or "the hard way".

Responding to Kuenssberg's assertion that such statements are a major threat to a Nato ally, Lord Mandelson says: "President Trump is not going to sort of, you know, land on Greenland, take Greenland by force, occupy the whole, he's not going to do that."

Pressed on whether he categorically knows that, he responds: "I don't know, but I'm offering you my best judgement as somebody who's observed him at fairly close quarters. He's not a fool."

He continues: "What's gonna happen is there's going to be a lot of discussion, a lot of consultation, a lot of negotiation, and at the end of the day, we are all going to have to wake up to the reality that the Arctic needs securing against China and Russia. And if you ask me who is going to lead in that effort to secure, we all know, don't we, that it's going to be the United States."

The show is now turning to an interview with Lord Peter Mandelson. The former ambassador to the US was sacked from his role last year over his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

We'll bring you key updates from his interview with Kuenssberg - but you can also follow along by clicking watch live at the top of this page.

Kuenssberg asks: "Would you ever consider doing a deal with Reform?"

"Why would I do that," Badenoch responds, saying Labour and Reform want to do the same thing, such as increasing welfare spending.

She says she wants to let this country thrive. "We need to get Britain working again."

She calls both Labour and Reform "authoritarian", saying the Conservative Party is different.

Kuenssberg then asks Badenoch about the Conservatives' polling, which Kuenssberg says has got "healthier" over the past year.

Kuenssberg says she remembered that Badenoch said she might soften her approach.

"Have you done that?" Kuenssberg asks. "Because in Prime Minister's Questions, you seem to be doing the opposite."

The Conservative leader says she hasn't softened her approach in Prime Minister's Questions, "trying to channel the anger that a lot of people out there feel about the way the country is being run".

The party has "learnt a lot" in the past year, she adds.

With that, the interview ends. Kuenssberg says that Reform leader Nigel Farage will appear on next week's show.

Kuenssberg moves now to discussions about age limits on social media.

Badenoch says children are spending hours on platforms designed to be addictive. She says we want "protection for children", and she wants to bring in an age limit for social media access.

"We are seeing children spending hours on platforms that are profiting from their anxiety and distraction."

Badenoch says she is a mother and understands it won't solve all the issues around social media access, but it would get a "critical mass of children off of social media".

• For context: The Conservatives say they would ban under-16s from accessing social media platforms if they were in power, promising to follow the example of Australia, which was the first country to introduce the policy

Kuenssberg moves on to Iran, where the largest protests in decades have taken place in recent days.

Asked whether the US and its allies should intervene to help bring an end to the Islamic Republic's regime, Badenoch says what we're seeing is extraordinary.

She says Iran is the country that has repressed women more than any other.

She adds, "Iran would very happily wipe out the UK" if it thought it could get away with it.

As a result, she says she wouldn't "have an issue" with removing the regime.

Pressed again on intervention, she replies that given the current threat, she wouldn't have a problem with it.

Kuenssberg asks what the UK could do.

Badenoch says, speaking hypothetically, any action would need a broad coalition of countries and they'd have to ensure a stable Iran is created, adding, "we don't want the situation to get worse".

Badenoch is asked by Kuenssberg what she would do for the UK.

The Tory leader says she would make the UK "stronger".

Kuenssberg presses her on what "stronger" means - would she send troops to Greenland?

The Tory leader says she would stop "sovereign surrender".

She adds she was "shocked" by US President Donald Trump's comments on Greenland, but pushes back, saying she doesn't want to talk about hypothetical situations.

Kuenssberg presses her repeatedly on whether she would send troops to protect Greenland with Nato, but Badenoch doesn't give a firm answer.

"I'm worried about whether there would even be a Nato," she says.

• For context, President Donald Trump said the US needed to "own" Greenland to prevent Russia and China from doing so, and the US would do it "the easy way" or "the hard way"