{"id":411045,"date":"2026-02-06T11:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/411045\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:04:09","slug":"top-government-figures-to-be-forced-to-hand-over-messages-with-mandelson-live-updates-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/411045\/","title":{"rendered":"Top government figures to be forced to hand over messages with Mandelson &#8211; live updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-to2z4d-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Significant moments coming up which could be very dangerous for the PMpublished at 11:00 GMT<\/p>\n<p>11:00 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-5adjh7-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/77f1bce6-dad0-484d-8f1e-149180838270.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Nick Eardley<br \/>Political correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">You\u2019ve probably heard the word febrile used to describe the situation at Westminster this week. It was &#8211; and perhaps still is. But when MPs go home for the weekend, the briefing often calms down for a few days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, the prime minister knows he can\u2019t breathe a sigh of relief just yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Firstly, MPs will be speaking to constituents in the next few days to judge the anger over the Mandelson situation. If they get an earful of the doorsteps, they could return even more angry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Then, there are some significant moments coming up soon, which could be very dangerous for the prime minister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Documents<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There\u2019s the publication of documents relating to Mandelson. What will they show? Will MPs be convinced the prime minister was lied to when he appointed Mandelson? Could there be more embarrassing revelations?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There\u2019s also the Gorton and Denton by-election at the end of the month. If, as some Labour folk gear, they lose badly &#8211; will MPs decide they need to act on their leader?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Elections<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Similarly, there are a raft of elections at the start of May. Labour look likely to lose Wales. They could face very difficult results in Scotland and the English local elections too. That has long been seen as a moment where the prime minister will be extremely vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Two caveats<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Firstly, There isn\u2019t an obvious successor. There are names &#8211; Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner, maybe a caretaker of some sort. But many of them have their own baggage (Streeting was close to Mandelson, Rayner\u2019s tax row).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Secondly &#8211; MPs don\u2019t know exactly how they would force a change of leader. Some are nervous about the idea of a prolonged leadership campaign in an uncertain world. Others fear they might not get the leader they want &#8211; and things could get worse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But there is no doubt Labour MPs are angry. There have been questions about Keir Starmer\u2019s leadership for some time &#8211; the events of the past week have given them more of a sense of immediacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Significant moments coming up which could be very dangerous for the PMpublished at 11:00 GMT 11:00 GMT Nick&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410807,"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-411045","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\/411045","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=411045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}