In the long run, the primary drop of the Mandelson recordsdata contained neither a smoking gun nor bombshell revelation.
Probably the most newsworthy parts on this 147-page doc detailing the vetting, appointment and severance of the ex-US ambassador had been the eyewatering £75,000 payoff Peter Mandelson acquired for being sacked – he had requested for close to £550,000 – and the revelation the prime minister’s nationwide safety adviser Jonathan Powell thought the method was “uncommon” and “weirdly rushed”.
We already knew, as a result of the PM admitted it within the Home of Commons, that Sir Keir Starmer was conscious of an “ongoing relationship” between Lord Mandelson and the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Lord Mandelson leaves his north London house on Wednesday. Pic: PA
However to see in black and white the pink flags being raised in a two-page due diligence report put collectively by the cupboard workplace was damning for the PM.
As a result of it confirms that the PM was instructed the connection between the pair was “notably shut” and continued properly after Epstein was “first convicted of procuring an underage lady in 2008” for intercourse.
It was flagged to Sir Keir that “Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein’s home whereas he was in jail in June 2009” and famous there was “common reputational threat” over his relationship with Epstein.
It warned the PM {that a} political appointment – Lord Mandelson – relatively than a diplomatic one was extra dangerous: “If something goes incorrect, you might be extra uncovered as the person is extra linked to you personally.”
Considerations raised
The Mandelson recordsdata additionally revealed that Mr Powell, certainly one of Sir Keir’s most trusted advisers, discovered Lord Mandelson’s appointment in December 2024 was “weirdly rushed” and that he had been “notably cautious concerning the appointment”.
Minutes of a name in September 2025 present that Mr Powell had “raised issues concerning the particular person and fame” to Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s then chief of workers, and provides: “MM responded that the problems had been addressed.”
Sir Philip Barton, the Overseas Workplace’s high civil servant on the time of Lord Mandelson’s appointment, “additionally had reservations”, in keeping with Mr Powell.
That the report was solely two pages lengthy and did not examine extra robustly Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, raises apparent questions.
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It was solely after the drop of the Epstein recordsdata by the US Division of Justice that we realized of the total depth and intimacy of the friendship.
These paperwork additionally led to the arrest of Lord Mandelson on suspicion of misconduct in public workplace after it emerged that he had allegedly shared confidential data with Epstein when serving in Gordon Brown’s cupboard.
Lord Mandelson denies the costs.
‘An inveterate liar’
For his half, the prime minister says he was repeatedly lied to by Lord Mandelson, with No 10 stressing that follow-up questions had been requested of the previous Labour peer in mild of the due diligence, which can again up Sir Keir’s account.
Frustratingly for No 10, these paperwork have been withheld by the Metropolitan Police as a part of their investigation into Lord Mandelson in an effort to keep away from prejudicing the investigation.
But it surely goes again to the central level that, given the pink flags, and Mr Powell’s misgivings, why Sir Keir selected to press on with the appointment.
Alex Burghardt, shadow chancellor to the Duchy of Lancaster, was excoriating as he known as this out within the Home of Commons on Wednesday.
“Now the prime minister claims that he was lied to. He wasn’t lied to by this due diligence doc. And it could be that Mandelson denied these claims.
“And if that’s the case, possibly the prime minister was lied to, however he was lied to by an inveterate liar who had been fired twice earlier than,” mentioned Mr Burghardt throughout the despatch field.
“And we’re alleged to consider, that the prime minister, who was as soon as the chief prosecutor on this nation, could not see via this nonsense. It beggars perception.”
A possible powder keg
We must await additional releases to get a greater understanding of what the PM was instructed and why he took the choices he did.
Solely a small proportion of the paperwork – anticipated to run into the tens of hundreds – was revealed on Wednesday, however Darren Jones mentioned the federal government hope to publish the rest “quickly”.
It’s going to give extra momentum to a scandal that’s hurting Sir Keir with ministers and MPs braced for the dropping of hundreds extra paperwork that – in the event that they go nationwide safety clearance – will element messages between Lord Mandelson and senior authorities figures for six months earlier than his appointment, and through his time as ambassador.
It may show a powder keg for already infected tensions between Washington and London over the battle in Iran ought to delicate diplomatic communications be put into the general public area – solely messages posing vital safety issues might be exempt.
And it will likely be parliament’s intelligence and safety committee, not the federal government, that may adjudicate on that.
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It may additionally increase conflicts of curiosity if it emerges that authorities correspondence was shared with Lord Mandelson earlier than his appointment given his industrial pursuits within the time at International Counsel, a lobbying agency he co-founded.
Two key figures who supported the appointment of Lord Mandelson – Mr McSweeney and the PM’s former director of communications, Matthew Doyle – have left authorities.
However their former boss, who has been battling to outlive, is now having to take care of the continuing penalties of an appointment he clearly deeply regrets.
All of it, as one senior MP instructed me on Wednesday evening, provides to the “common despondency” round this administration.
Sir Keir promised to scrub up politics and but he finds himself within the centre of one of many largest political scandals this century.
He should rue the day he ever let Lord Mandelson again into authorities. But it surely’s very tough to see how he could make it proper.
