Prime Minister Keir Starmer is haunted by his decision in December 2024 to appoint P. Mandelson, who had connections with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, to this prestigious diplomatic post.
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On Monday, the government released a huge second batch of documents related to P. Mandelson’s brief work in Washington, which ended in September 2025. Among the published documents are emails and WhatsApp messages.
In a handwritten note to then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy in November 2024, P. Mandelson wrote: “If you intend to appoint me, I will make sure you never regret it.”
However, in WhatsApp messages sent to then-Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden in May 2025, P. Mandelson attacked K. Starmer and the government.
“Keir lacks enthusiasm, as does the entire (ministerial) cabinet,” P. Mandelson wrote on May 2, 2025.
“The problem is that the government does not provide a fighting spirit to turn things around and change Britain. That is exactly what I mean by ‘expression,’ ‘enthusiasm,'” he wrote the next day.
“Besieged and hopeless”
The first batch of documents released in March showed that K. Starmer was warned that P. Mandelson posed a “general reputational risk” due to his ties with J. Epstein, but still appointed him.
K. Starmer dismissed P. Mandelson after the extent of his friendship with the billionaire financier, who died in a New York jail in 2019 awaiting trial on charges of trafficking people for sexual exploitation, became clear.
The scandal partly contributed to the poor election results of the Labour administration led by K. Starmer in Scotland, Wales, and England last month, and fueled calls for the Prime Minister to resign.
K. Starmer has apologized multiple times for this appointment, as well as to the women exploited by J. Epstein, but has refused to resign, although three senior aides lost their jobs over the scandal.
In three volumes of documents, covering more than 1,500 pages, it is evident that P. Mandelson, a former Labour public relations specialist and minister who helped organize several election victories for former Prime Minister Tony Blair, regularly exchanged messages with key government ministers.
In one of them, written a year after K. Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory in the general election in July 2024, P. Mandelson described Downing Street’s activity as “besieged and hopeless.”
An official spokesperson for K. Starmer called the documents released on Monday, which contain many redactions, including for national security reasons, an “unprecedented case of government transparency.”
However, this only happened after members of parliament voted in February to force the government to publish these documents.
Failed security clearance
The government stated that some documents are not published on the advice of the police investigating P. Mandelson’s possible misconduct over a decade ago.
P. Mandelson is accused of leaking classified information to J. Epstein while serving as a minister. He denies any wrongdoing.
The newly released documents reveal that P. Mandelson “refused to comply” with the government’s request to hand over messages from his personal phone.
K. Starmer claimed that P. Mandelson lied about the nature of his ties with the compromised financier.
His former personnel director Morgan McSweeney resigned over advising the Prime Minister to make this appointment.
The scandal also cost the jobs of K. Starmer’s former communications director and a senior Foreign Office civil servant, whom the Prime Minister dismissed for failing to inform him or other ministers that P. Mandelson had failed the security clearance for these duties.
K. Starmer has been trying to stay in power for several weeks and refuses to step down, but a shadow battle for his replacement has already begun.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham will later this month participate in a by-election to return to parliament, which is seen as the first step in challenging K. Starmer for the party leadership.
“People have lost faith in the Westminster system, which (…) concentrates too much power in too few hands,” A. Burnham wrote on the social network X after the documents were published.
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