Criminal Charges Erupt For Starmer; Media Still Fixated On Mandelson

Criminal Charges Erupt For Starmer; Media Still Fixated On Mandelson

From Kernow Damo by Damien Willey

April 23, 2026 · 14 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the criminal charges against Labour figures related to a cybercrime investigation while critiquing the media's focus on Mandelson.

While Westminster chases Mandelson for sport, Labour is sitting on a live criminal case over the internal route to choosing one of its own MPs. Right, so Keir Starmer’s having a bad one, but if you’re sick to back teeth of Mandelson dominating every single news cycle ad nauseum, then you’ll be pleased to know that so am I, but not only that, there is frankly a much more damaging story going incredibly poorly reported right now, because frankly the Mandelson stuff is just easier and our5 mainstream journalists might pull a muscle if they actually attempted the real thing. You see four Labour figures have now been charged after a Metropolitan Police cybercrime investigation into allegations that a Labour Party database was manipulated to increase one particular candidate’s chances of selection in Croydon. Joel Bodmer, Shila Bodmer, Carole Bonner and Gabriel Leroy are all due in court now on 19 May in connection with that, and Bodmer faces an extra charge of perverting the course of justice over alleged phone-record alteration. That is a live criminal case now, over how the local Labour Party attempted to choose a likely future MP and amid all the stories and allegations surrounding…

Topics covered

  • criminal charges
  • Labour Party
  • Keir Starmer
  • Mandelson
  • cybercrime investigation

Keywords

  • Westminster
  • Labour Party database
  • court case
  • political scandal

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Croydon, Croydon East, London

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