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Mock The Week drags Strictly’s Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman into Keir Starmer drama

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Mock The Week drags Strictly’s Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman into Keir Starmer drama
Mock The Week drags Strictly’s Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman into Keir Starmer drama Milo Pope Milo Pope Published February 14, 2026 3:05pm Updated February 14, 2026 6:12pm Share this article via whatsappShare this article via xCopy the link to this article.Link is copiedShare this article via facebook Comment now Comments

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Across its 20 year existence, Mock the Week has made jokes about pretty much everyone, from politicians to actors and monarchs.

But not even die hard fans of the show could have expected a crossover between former Strictly Come Dancing hosts Claudia Winkelman and Tess Daly and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

On last night’s episode of the TLC show, Rhys James, Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan, Glenn Moore, Sarah Keyworth and Hugh Dennis joined host Dara Ó Briain to discuss the recent resignation of Starmer’s Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney.

The departure came after the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US flared up following the latest Epstein files release.

As James joked that McSweeney’s resignation far from wrapped up the controversy, Pascoe likened the Chief of Staff and Starmer to ‘being like a pair’.

‘You know McSweeney came up with the ideas, Keir Starmer was sort of putting it into action,’ she said.

Mock The Week drags Strictly's Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman into Keir Starmer drama Dara Ó Briain found Sara Pascoe’s joke hilarious (Picture: TLC-UK/LNP) Mock The Week drags Strictly's Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman into Keir Starmer drama The comedian likened Morgan McSweeney’s exit to Claudia and Tess on Strictly (Picture: TLC-UK/LNP)

‘They should have left at the same time, like Tess and Claudia don’t you think? That was the fairest way to do it.’

Asked by Ó Briain whether that’s ‘why Tess and Claudia left’, Pascoe laughed: ‘Not because of the Epstein files.’

Adding to the conversation, Dennis said: ‘Dara and I left at the same time but he came back first.’

This comes after audiences gasped in in disbelief over the demolition of ex-Prince Andrew on the show last week.

Each of the panellists took turns to joke about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew) and his alleged links to Epstein.

Ó Briain showed the comics a picture of Andrew behind the wheel of a car and asked, ‘What’s going on here?’

Angela Barnes immediately jumped in and joked, ‘It’s a bit late for a getaway car,’ to which Lou Sanders replied: ‘He usually drives a younger model, actually.’

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 06: Downing Street Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney arrives into Downing Street on October 06, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Downing Street Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney resigned from the government (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Mock The Week drags Strictly's Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman into Keir Starmer drama Rhys James also featured on the episode of Mock the Week (Picture: TLC-UK/LNP)

Beginning in 2005, Mock The Week took a light-hearted look at weekly news, and was a huge success, staying on the air until November 2022.

However, it found a new home on TLC, as the channel became free-to-air in the UK in January 2026.

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Previously, Ó Briain expressed relief that the move to the channel will allow him and his panellists to joke about politics with greater freedom, without the BBC’s strict ‘balance’ requirements.

This week’s show was the third out of nine new episodes, which will all be double the length of the originall BBC series at one hour.

Retaining its classic format, returning panellists like Dennis, Russell Howard and Ed Byrne will be joined by a series of new guests.

Mock the Week is available to watch on TLC.

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