'Running scared!' Camilla Tominey grills Labour MP after Cabinet Minister dodges GB News scrutiny

And I'm going to be asking one of his Labour MPs, indeed the Labour MP for Cambourne and Redworth, Perrin Moon, whether he seriously believes that's going to be the case

He's coming now. I think you're here with me this morning, Mr Moon. Thank you very much indeed for your time on GB News this morning

Can you hear me OK? Yeah, I love you. There you are. Thank you so much

And can I just thank you for coming on in the absence of Darren Jones, the second cabinet minister in a row, two weeks now, not hearing from the government

Not sure why they're running scared, but you aren't, Mr Moon. So I'm going to ask you this question following on from that Sunday Times front page headline

The prime minister seriously thinks he's going to be fighting the next general election for Labour

Your constituents can't think that, can they? I was with a lot of them yesterday

What you've got to remember is that there are 400 Labour MPs

in any group of 400 Labour MPs, regardless of their political persuasion

You will always have noises off. The issue that we have is that it seems to me that it's always the noises off

that get invited onto the press. So here am I, a lowly backbencher, no particular aspirations

Do I want Keir Starmer? Do I think Keir Starmer will fight the next general election

Absolutely 100%. And I'll tell you what, I am not alone. OK, but Mr Moon, let me just quote some of your colleagues

One backbencher, the game is already up. Another, I think people will now start going over the top of May the 8th

after the local elections. A senior Labour MP, I think if there's going to be a process

for replacing the Prime Minister, it needs to be as quick as it can be

Another backbencher, dead man walking. Is it simply that you are backing the Prime Minister

because you don't think there's anyone better in the Labour Party to replace him? I back him because since he took over as Prime Minister, we've had six interest rate

cuts. I back him because the economy grew far greater than anyone expected it to in February

I back him because NHS waiting lists are falling rapidly. I back him because we're getting

investment into schools and nursery places. I back him because he's taking, in my area

10,000 Cornish children out of poverty by lifting the two-child benefit cap

I back him and Rachel Reeves to rebuild the economy and to get the investment we desperately need into our public services

All right. I mean, he doesn't back Rachel Reeves. According to reports this morning, he's planning a reshuffle

and he's going to turf the Chancellor out. Well, you know, you're always going to get noises off

It a free brawl time We heading up to the local elections Every single government in the local elections gets us shellacking because it a free hit and you will always hear noises off We focused on the job in half

Mr Moon, do you back the Prime Minister's 16 U-turns and him throwing successive staff under the bus

over the Peter Mandelson scandal rather than taking responsibility himself? So let's just take some of those in turn

In terms of the winter fuel allowance and the inheritance tax for farmers

We got the threshold wrong. The policy I 100 percent support, both not funding winter fuel allowance to millionaire pensioners and also not incentivising the likes of Jeremy Clarkson to buy up agricultural land without a proper focus on farming

We got the threshold wrong on both of those. We fixed them. You know, when it comes to kind of other matters, we're absolutely focused on the job in hand

In terms of the Mandelson affair, Olly Robinson did not pass on a vital piece of information to the prime minister

The prime minister appointed Peter Mandelson. He deeply regrets it. He apologised. He didn't know. He wasn't told. He would have made a different decision had he known

Mr Moon, we can't say that now, can we? Because he did know that Peter Mandelson had very close relationships with figures, including Jeffrey Epstein and indeed those linked to both China and Russia

He knew that because we've been given paperwork that was released by the cabinet office showing that all of those reputational risks came out and were flagged to the prime minister

And indeed, the former cabinet secretary, Simon Case, before the appointment said, prime minister, do not appoint this man before you've done the vetting

He ignored that advice from the most senior civil servant of the time and yet still claims with a straight face that due process was followed

How can it have been followed if he didn't follow the advice of his top civil servant

He was not told that Mandelson had failed the UK SV vetting

He was not given that vital piece of information. It was not passed on by Sir Ollie Robbins

It should have been passed on. Had it been passed on, the Prime Minister would have made a different decision

And, you know, that's kind of where we're at. Had he had this vital piece of information

it would have been a different story. Hang on a minute. Sir Oli has spoken to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee

and said, actually, the appointment of Peter Mandelson was rushed, that somebody said, or at least it was heard by the committee

that somebody had said just effing get it done There was an urgent need to install Peter Mandelson as the US ambassador because they wanted to beat the deadline of Trump inauguration Therefore due process wasn followed regardless of what he knew or didn know about the vetting

And I go back to my original point, Mr Moon. He was told by his top civil servant, Simon Case, in November 2024

Do not appoint this very controversial man nicknamed the Prince of Darkness

do not appoint him before the vetting's completed. He ignored that because he was in too much of a rush

to get Mandelson out to Washington. He must have to admit that due process wasn't followed

simply because it clearly wasn't Mr Moon. You can't argue it was

I've just cited the evidence to the contrary. You've cited somebody quoting something

that may or may not have been said at number 10. It was very clear, even from Sir Ollie Robbins himself, that in terms of the overall decision, no pressure was placed on the Foreign Office

He made that absolutely plain. I mean, it'll be interesting to see what Morgan McSweeney says when he comes to the panel

Well, it will be. As far as I'm concerned, I've got to tell you, Camilla, I'll just tell you something

This is a really important issue, and I'm not trying to belittle it. But all of yesterday, I've been talking to dozens and dozens of residents across my Campbell

Reduce and Hale constituency. The issue that they wanted to talk about was the cost of living crisis, NHS waiting times

It was the minimum wage. The Prime Minister. And so all of these issues

Really, really important that the Mandelson affair is, is not what the vast majority of people are thinking about at the moment

No, but they might be worried that the Prime Minister, because he's caught up in a scandal and because his own members of his own cabinet and his own party think that he's, quote, a dead man walking, that he hasn't actually got his eye on these priorities

If he's got nothing to hide, why doesn't he appear before the Privileges Committee

He repeatedly called for Boris Johnson to face investigation after investigation. As you say, his former right hand man, Morgan McSweeney, is appearing on Tuesday

if the Prime Minister is so-called whiter than white, why doesn't he face his own grilling

The fundamental difference between Boris Johnson, who claimed he wasn't at any of the parties..

Why won't he face his own grilling, Mr Moon? ..and was photographed at five of them

and Keir Starmer, who we now know, because we know from the evidence... Why won't

..he wasn't told. OK, so why doesn't he appear? And Kemi Baden and Nigel Farage are pulling back from calling him a liar because they know it not true Why doesn he agree to go before the committee and be grilled If he has nothing to hide he nothing to worry about

He should be volunteering himself because he's a man of decency. Because I would rather he were focusing on the priorities of the people

which are bringing down our heating bills, bringing down our NHS waiting list

I don't want him to be to be wasting time going through a committee that is completely unnecessary

because it's been very, very clear for all to see that he wasn't told

he didn't know, and had he known, he wouldn't have appointed Mandelson. He did appoint Mandelson and he's apologised for it

As far as I'm concerned, we need to get on with the priorities of the people. OK. Do you think that your constituents agree with the appointment

and indeed the continuation in office of Lord Herma after the Telegraph last week exclusively revealed

that he had been instrumental in a completely unnecessary witch hunt of British soldiers who were given medals for gallantry

and that he continued to represent their Iraqi accusers, even though he had his own concerns that they weren't telling the truth

And the Al-Swidi inquiry later revealed them to have deliberately lied. You know, I'm aware of this report, Camilla

but frankly, I haven't had the opportunity to get more deeply into the story

As with everything, there are all sorts of other priorities going on at the moment

not least what's happening in the US. So I'm not going to try and speculate on that story, Camilla

I don't know enough about it. All right, fair enough. Mr Moon, what is your reaction to what's gone on overnight

with the US President and the First Lady escorted from the Hilton Hotel

at the White House Correspondents' Dinner as a result of a gunman breaching the premises

It's look, it's really, really worrying. And, you know, I believe that there was somebody, a Secret Service agent who was who was injured in this

And, you know, what immediately jumped into my mind were I hate to say it, but the the horrific attacks on Joe Cox and David Amess and how we we treat our kind of elected politicians

Whatever anybody thinks about Donald Trump, he was democratically elected by the people of the United States of America

And to see any democratically elected individual come under attack in this way is shocking, frankly

And it's an affront to democracy internationally. Perrin Moon, the Labour MP for Cambon and Redruth, you've done a great job this morning

You've given a great account of your defence to the Prime Minister. In the absence of Darren Jones, I congratulate you and I thank you and I salute your bravery for coming on

Thank you very much indeed. Thanks, Camilla. Thank you