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Beth is in Helsinki with the prime minister for an exclusive interview for the podcast.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he “hates the fact” that he made a “mistake” over the appointment of Peter Mandelson.

“I dwell on it. I beat myself up about it,” he told Beth, who is accompanying him on a visit to Finland, where he is taking part in a leaders’ summit.

Beth also questions him about his relationship with Donald Trump following disparaging comments the US president made about Sir Keir’s response to the Iran war.

Plus, Beth, Harriet and Ruth react to the full interview.

Got a question for the burner phone? WhatsApp 07934 200 444 or email electoraldysfunction@sky.uk.

And if you didn’t know, you can also watch Beth, Ruth and Harriet on YouTube.

A month into the Iran war and the prime minister, on a visit to Finland with allies in the Joint Expeditionary Forces military coalition this week, left me in no doubt that he believes our lives, our country and the way we do things, is about to profoundly change.

This is a “once in a generation moment” that is going to shape the next decades of our lives, Keir Starmer told me as part of a longer-than-normal interview for our Electoral Dysfunction podcast, as he reflected on the global turbulence and how the outlook for Britain’s economy had changed so massively in such a short period of time.

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈

We also touched on the turbulent times he has faced in recent weeks, be that around the prospect of a leadership challenge or the Peter Mandelson crisis that he told me he “beats himself up about it” in a genuinely emotional moment of our conversation.

What I took from this interview is a prime minister rolling the pitch for another difficult stretch for a country already ground down by crises with very long tales: the 2008 financial crash that ushered in austerity and a step down in living standards; the COVID-19 pandemic that saw the government borrow over £300bn in 2021/2 and leaving the Treasury to spend £100bn a year on debt interest alone.

“I think in my life, I remember profoundly the Berlin Wall coming down. And I remember that feeling, that there was going to be peace and freedom and that the values that I held dear… and that I didn’t think – I have to say – I would ever see Russian tanks going across a European border again in my lifetime. I didn’t think I would see that. And yet we saw that four years ago,” he said.

“In the Middle East, Iran is a threat to all of its neighbours, a threat to the world and therefore, how this ends will determine what that threat is as we go forward. So this is a defining period. It’s a testing period for the whole world.”

There are political parallels too, with say 2008. Back then the prime minister Gordon Brown was grappling with a financial crisis and a potential leadership challenge as MPs looked down the barrel of defeat at the next general election.

At the time, Mr Brown warned his would-be challenger David Miliband, and his restive party, that “now is not a time for a novice”. Does Keir Starmer feel the same?

“That’s not for me to say, in the sense of whether it’s the right time for a novice, I’ll be judged by what I do,” he said.

What he is more forthright on is that this crisis, this war on two fronts, will bring serious consequences for the UK. He acknowledged in our interview that the spring statement, in which the chancellor spoke about stability, failing inflation and interest rates, seems now like a fever dream. That the outlook for the economy has been so battered by Trump’s war is, of course, a frustration.

But the prime minister is pragmatic about the place he’s in: “There’s no point me sort of complaining about it. That’s the world we live in. You’ve got to face the world as it is. I have to lead us through this war too on two fronts.”

Read more:
McSweeney phone theft linked to Mandelson files ‘far-fetched’
Trump says he’s disappointed in Starmer

His immediate task as prime minister is to decide on support for energy bills. The current price cap runs out in June, after which bills could rise by an eye-watering £500 a year, according to the Resolution Foundation.

The prime minister told me in our interview that “any support is likely to be targeted”. This will come with controversy.

Liz Truss’s administration poured £40bn into capping energy prices for all households at the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, and one in two people think the government can afford to subsidise bills, according to a recent YouGov poll.

But this prime minister is clear he won’t do that. “We will have to tailor support. Exactly how we do that is obviously a number of options we’re looking at. But I’ll be clear with you, it will be tailored,” he said.

With the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Thursday saying the UK will be the worse hit from the Iran war, predicting a 0.5 per cent contraction in GDP, it is an awful position for the prime minister to be in. But he seems up for the fight.

When I asked him about Trump’s treatment of him, he simply said that Trump might apply pressure, but he is “not going to back down” or “buckle under pressure”, and when it comes to this predicament at home and the upcoming May elections, there is no way he is going to stand down.

When I asked him about Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham semi-declaring on a leadership race, he doesn’t bristle, he simply says he expects to see Angela “playing a leading role in this Labour government”.

It is when we come to Mandelson that some of the pressure of the past few weeks and months perhaps comes more to bear.

I genuinely can not understand, looking at the vetting document, how the prime minister got to the place of appointing Mandelson, when it was clear he kept a relationship with Epstein post conviction of prostitution of a minor and was sacked twice by previous Labour governments.

When I asked him if he was angry at himself, he told me that “nobody has been harder on me in relation to the mistake I made”.

“I hate the fact I made that mistake, I dwell on it. I beat myself up about it. It’s certainly not a mistake I’d ever repeat.”

But as for being beaten by it, Starmer is doing the opposite, he is digging in. He promised the country this would be the year he would cut the cost of living, but the war in Iran looks almost certain to derail that, unless resolution is swift.

Despite the growing complications and challenges, he seems to believe he is the leader for the moment – despite what Trump, his critics, and even some in his cabinet might say.

Trump says Starmer is no Churchill, but these wars, if they become more prolonged, will put him in the unenviable position of being a wartime prime minister.

He tells me he has “great determination” to “steer our country through this” even as the outlook worsens for the economy. In the coming weeks, the consequences of that will be laid bare. Starmer, despite the ferocious criticism he’s faced, clearly thinks he is the right man for this moment.

He told me that his prime minister’s advice to his younger self would be to rise to the challenge and accept the bumpy road – and he’s betting that the worse this crisis gets, the more his party will agree with him.

He is applying the rule of “never waste a crisis”, but where this war, our economy and our prime minister lands is anyone’s guess right now.

You can catch the full interview on the podcast, which is available now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, just search for Electoral Dysfunction and hit follow.

You can also watch the full interview on Sky News’s YouTube channel.

This action was taken by the corporation after the rebuke from the Railway Ministry. The ministry not only imposed heavy fines on both the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and the service provider Krishna Enterprises, but also directed termination of the contract.

What did IRCTC say in the statement?
Complaints regarding the quality of Amul Dahi served in Patna-Tata Vande Bharat train have been taken very seriously, IRCTC said in a statement. It has not only imposed a heavy penalty on the licensee and Amul, but has also initiated the process of terminating the contract and blacklisting the train licensee, the statement said.

Furthermore, Amul has been summoned on March 27 to explain the serious concerns regarding the quality of its curd. When contacted, IRCTC refused to divulge the clarification given by Amul. No immediate response has been received from Amul either.

What was the whole matter?
Vande was traveling by Bharat train on March 15. They reportedly found live insects in Amul curd packets served with dinner. Passenger Ritesh Singh immediately raised the issue on his X handle, tagging IRCTC, Railway Minister and others.

Responding to the traveller, Amul wrote from its official customer care account on Twitter: “We are concerned to know about your experience. Please send us your contact number, residential address and batch number so that we can investigate further.

After investigating the matter, IRCTC imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the seller Krishna Enterprises for negligence in handling food items. IRCTC also directed the company to maintain proper cold chain, be more vigilant and follow food safety protocols. Dissatisfied with the action of IRCTC, the Railway Ministry directed to terminate the contract of Krishna Enterprises on March 25, 2026 and increase the fine from Rs 25 thousand to Rs 50 lakh. The ministry has also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on IRCTC.

The UK and its NATO allies in Europe must prepare for a “worst case scenario” of the US not defending them in a crisis, an influential committee of peers and MPs has warned.

Tensions between Donald Trump‘s administration and Sir Keir Starmer‘s government could also compromise the reliability of critical pillars of UK national security, including the maintenance of Trident missiles used in the navy’s nuclear deterrent submarines, intelligence sharing and access to programmes such as the F-35 jet, it said in a report.

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy urged London to “plan to move away from a bilateral relationship with the United States that is so dependent on the latter for nuclear and intelligence operations, and conventional defence”.

Follow latest on Middle East war

It also advised the UK, Europe and Canada to develop a plan “for a transition towards greater European leadership of NATO“.

The intervention, published on Friday, came as President Trump again lambasted his allies – and the UK in particular – for choosing not to join his war against Iran.

He mocked the Royal Navy’s two aircraft carriers as “toys”, while accusing fellow NATO countries of having “done absolutely nothing” to help combat the Iranian regime.

Posting on social media, the president added: “The USA needs nothing from NATO, but ‘never forget’ this very important point in time.”

The comment is a further signal that Washington’s support to the transatlantic alliance under Article 5 of its founding treaty on collective defence – where an attack on one ally is deemed to be an attack on all – cannot be guaranteed.

Mr Trump has already repeatedly dismissed Mr Starmer as not being like Winston Churchill.

Read more:
British public’s fears of war revealed
Putin’s ‘hidden hand likely helping Iran against Trump’

The increased unpredictability of the White House’s security priorities is upending NATO assumptions on the defence of Europe – which has always been built around a belief that the US armed forces would be the dominant power on the side of the allies in a war.

The Supreme Allied Commander Europe – the top operational commander in the alliance – has only ever been an American, while the US military provides critical elements to any fight such as satellite feeds, electronic warfare jammers and overwhelming mass.

It means a European-only force would be a lot less capable.

The committee – which was assessing the UK’s National Security Strategy, published last June – said it was important for the government to continue to collaborate with the US where practical.

But it must also “develop a clear plan, along with other European allies, for a transition towards greater European leadership of NATO”.

“Preparing for a ‘worst-case scenario’ whereby Europe can no longer rely on US support in the event of a crisis, the Government must work with European partners to invest in its own capabilities to offset this potential withdrawal,” the committee added.

Britain is uniquely exposed to any weakening in this transatlantic bond because of its close security and defence partnership with the US, developed over decades and based on the “special relationship”.

The committee listed areas of particular importance, including the UK’s dependence on the US for maintenance of its Trident missiles, intelligence sharing arrangements, delivery of the F-35 fast jet programme, and a new plan to build attack submarines.

But it warned of the potential for Mr Trump to use any leverage he has against allies if they do something he does not like.

Referring to Britain’s reliance on the US in various defence and security domains, the report said: “There are demonstrable areas of tension in the UK-US relationship that may compromise the reliability of these dependencies in the near future.”