Keir Starmer has said it is \u201cfar-fetched\u201d to suggest that the theft of his former chief of staff\u2019s mobile phone is somehow connected to a subsequent push for the release of documents relating to Peter Mandelson\u2019s appointment as US ambassador.<\/p>\n
Downing Street has come under pressure to say whether key messages between Morgan McSweeney and the former ambassador were lost after it emerged that the government-issue phone was stolen last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch had \u201craised an eyebrow\u201d in relation to accounts about the theft, a spokesperson for the Conservative leader said on Wednesday. The Labour<\/a> MP Karl Turner, who has clashed with the government over jury trial legislation and was a critic of McSweeney\u2019s role, said on X on Wednesday night that he did not believe the phone was stolen.<\/p>\n The prime minister responded to the claims on Thursday morning, saying: \u201cThe phone was stolen. It was reported to the police. There\u2019s a transcript of the call in which Morgan McSweeney<\/a> gives his name, his date of birth, the details of the phone, and the police confirm that it was reported.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, there are thefts like this. It was stolen. It was reported at the time, the police have acknowledged and confirmed that. That is what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Starmer added: \u201cThe idea that somehow everybody could have seen that sometime in the future there\u2019d be a request over the phone is, to my mind, a little bit far-fetched.\u201d<\/p>\n Later on Thursday the shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith, also questioned the circumstances surrounding the loss of the phone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole thing is as smelly as a fish market on a hot summer\u2019s afternoon,\u201d he told GB News. \u201cI worked in No 10. Briefly, I had a No 10 phone. There was a paranoia about devices like that falling into other people\u2019s hands.\u201d<\/p>\n MPs moved in February to force the publication of tens of thousands of documents<\/a> amid questions over what was known about Mandelson\u2019s links to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before he was handed the Washington job.<\/p>\n