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Mandelson, Andrew and Epstein: Should there be parliamentary committee of inquiry? A conversation with Tom Tugendhat MP - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 133

28 Feb 2026
Image © House of Commons
Image © House of Commons

After the Greens’ Gorton and Denton by-election win, we assess the fallout: pressure on the Prime Minister, possible party-switching, shifting alliances, and whether mainstream parties’ sub-30% vote share could revive electoral reform. Tom Tugendhat MP calls for a parliamentary “super-committee” to probe the Mandelson–Mountbatten-Windsor saga. Plus: Speaker drama over Mandelson’s arrest, and looming battles over the Spring Statement and billions in public spending.

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After the Greens’ triumph at the Gorton and Denton by-election we ponder the implications for Parliament. Could the result tempt more MPs to switch parties? Does this heap fresh pressure on the Prime Minister? Will party leaders need to rethink how they treat opponents whose backing they may need after the next election? And with the three largest parties in Parliament securing less than 30% per cent of the vote in the by-election between them, could it spark a move to introduce electoral reform?

As the controversy surrounding Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor rolls on, Conservative MP and former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat joins the podcast. He makes the case for a new parliamentary “super-committee” to investigate what went wrong, from the former Prince’s appointment as a trade envoy to Mandelson’s move to Washington, and to consider how better to protect the constitutional monarchy from future embarrassment.

Plus, Ruth and Mark can’t resist dissecting the extraordinary chain of events that saw Mr Speaker Hoyle and his Lords counterpart, Lord Forsyth, unexpectedly caught up in the arrest of Lord Mandelson.

And with the Chancellor’s Spring Statement due in the coming week, as well as a series of votes to authorise billions of pounds in public spending, a lot of senior MPs have serious concerns about where the money is going in a series of government departments. So will Ministers face tough questioning during the coming Estimates Day debates or will the money be quietly voted through? Watch this space.

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Our guest

Tom Tugendhat MP. House of Commons

Rt Hon Tom Tugendhat MBE VR MP

Tom Tugendhat MP

Tom Tugendhat is the Conservative MP for Tonbridge, having been first elected to Parliament in 2015. He was chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee from 2017 until 2022, when he was appointed Minister for Security at the Home Office and became a Privy Counsellor. After the 2024 general election he was appointed Shadow Security Minister before returning to the backbenches in November 2024 having been defeated by Kemi Badenoch for the Conservative Party leadership. Before becoming an MP he had studied theology at the University of Bristol then took a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. He learnt Arabic in Yemen then became a journalist in Beirut before returning to the UK and joining the Territorial Army in 2003. He went on to serve in Afghanistan, helping to establish a National Security Council. He was appointed MBE for his service in the Territorial Army Intelligence Corps and was awarded the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal for his long service.

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Transcript

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. There may consequently be minor errors and the text is not formatted according to our style guide. If you wish to reference or cite the transcript copy below, please first check against the audio version above.

Intro: [00:00:00] You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm.

Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox.

Mark D'Arcy: And I'm Mark D'Arcy. Coming up this week.

Ruth Fox: Some by-elections you just shrug, some completely transform the political mood, so how will Gorton and Denton reverberate through Parliament?

Mark D'Arcy: Should Parliament take the lead in investigating the Mandelson, Andrew and Epstein scandal? We talk to former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat MP.

Ruth Fox: And why MPs should be paying a lot of attention to what's going on in the Ministry of Defence and other departments in next week's debate on government spending.[00:01:00]

Mark D'Arcy: But first, Ruth, the Labour Party celebrated its 126th birthday, the 126th anniversary of the great meeting in London that founded Labour, by losing one of its safest seats, Gorton and Denton, or Denton and Gorton, choose your permutation, on the outskirts of Manchester, fell not to Reform, which had been strongly predicted by a lot of people, but to the left wing competitor, the Green Party, and the results of this by-election will, I think, reverberate through Parliament and have all sorts of interesting effects. So what do you think is, first of all, the biggest effect in the Chamber?

Ruth Fox: Well, the biggest thing that strikes me is that the three main parties in Parliament, the biggest Parliamentary groups, Labour, conservatives, and Liberal Democrats got 30% of the vote between them, give or take a few extra votes for things like the Monster Raving Loonies and others.

Mark D'Arcy: So the three big parties that have dominated British politics for more than a century, between them, are now a tiny minority of the votes cast in that seat.

Ruth Fox: In that seat. And the two parties that [00:02:00] topped the polls, Greens and Reform, between them, got 70% of the vote in that by-election, but between them can't muster 20 seats in the House of Commons. Full transcript →

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