allegations of misconduct in public office<\/a>, for which the maximum penalty is life imprisonment.<\/p>\nYes, really! It’s that serious.<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Times carried out last week but published on Monday, Mandelson referred to a “handful of misguided historical emails, which I deeply regret sending”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On other claims, Mandelson questioned the authenticity of the documents, citing false claims he had a US social security number, questionable US-dollar cheque payments into UK banks, incorrect beneficiary details, and multiple basic errors in dates, spelling and formatting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The police investigation, no doubt extremely complex, could last several months and Mandelson’s agony could last years if he’s prosecuted, even if he’s acquitted.<\/p>\n
The torment for the PM is more immediate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He faces a potentially painful onslaught from Kemi Badenoch at tomorrow’s PMQs, followed by a bruising Commons debate.<\/p>\n
The PM must be cursing the parliamentary calendar, because Wednesday is an opposition day in the Commons, which means the Conservatives choose the business.<\/p>\n
And this time the Tories are using a tactic used by Labour in opposition.<\/p>\n
In the parliamentary jargon, it’s called a humble address, which means the Tory motion demands publication of all the papers relating to Starmer’s appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US.<\/p>\n
Yes, all of them! In theory, at least. A paper trail, in other words.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a device Labour employed with some success during the endless Commons debates on Brexit a few years back when Starmer was opposition leader.<\/p>\n
This time, though, the prime minister could face a major rebellion from Labour backbenchers if he whips his MPs to vote against the Tory motion. But will he?<\/p>\n
Watch: Richard Burgon speaks to Jon Craig<\/p>\n
“I’ll vote for a paper trail to be released,” left-wing serial rebel Richard Burgon told Sky News. “But there shouldn’t be a vote. They shouldn’t be opposing the motion.<\/p>\n
“It would be crazy to do so. We can’t have a situation where the government is dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing.”<\/p>\n
The government is not falling into the Tory trap, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It will commit to publishing documents about the Mandelson appointment.<\/p>\n
But ministers have tabled an amendment to the Conservative motion proposing an exemption for papers affecting national security.<\/p>\n
The PM’s amendment adds: “Except papers prejudicial to UK national security of international relations.”<\/p>\n
Which could, of course, mean there are a large number of exemptions. Too many, the Conservatives may claim.<\/p>\n
Badenoch claims the normal procedures were “waived away” so the prime minister could appoint Mandelson as ambassador, despite his close relationship with a convicted paedophile.<\/p>\n
“Let’s see all the correspondence, emails, mobile phone records,” she said. “We want to see everything.”<\/p>\n
The Tories also plan to turn up the heat on the PM’s controversial chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, a man who’s already the pantomime villain of Labour’s woes and blunders.<\/p>\n
“Morgan McSweeney, a close prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Peter Mandelson, was involved in the vetting,” said the Tory leader. “Morgan McSweeney is a man whose fingerprints are all over this embarrassment.”<\/p>\n
Couldn’t come at a worse time<\/p>\n
For the PM, the Mandelson nightmare couldn’t have come at a worse time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His poll ratings are through the floor, he faces a horrible by-election on 26 February and horrendous local and national elections in May.<\/p>\n
The mavericks and malcontents on the Labour benches claim the only question about Starmer’s survival is when his mutineers move to oust him: after the by-election or after the May elections.<\/p>\n
McSweeney, therefore, could be a convenient scapegoat, sacrificed to save an embattled prime minister.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Number 10 Svengali dumped just like Alastair Campbell, Andy Coulson and Dominic Cummings were before him.<\/p>\n
The only winners from the Mandelson fiasco are Westminster’s opposition parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not just the Conservatives, either. The Liberal Democrats and Scottish National party led demands for the police investigation.<\/p>\n
Despite the PM’s tough talk and his claim that Mandelson “let his country down”, a damning verdict of his bad judgement in him could mean he ends up being as big a loser as the Prince of Darkness himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour high command may be relieved that Peter Mandelson has quit the House…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-406705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}