{"id":616082,"date":"2026-06-01T23:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T23:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/616082\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T23:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T23:47:20","slug":"more-mandelson-files-released-in-uk-bring-bad-news-for-starmer-but-many-questions-remain-unanswered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/616082\/","title":{"rendered":"More Mandelson files released in UK bring bad news for Starmer, but many questions remain unanswered"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Peter Mandelson assured the British government<\/a> it would \u201cnever regret\u201d appointing him as U.K. ambassador to the United States, according to documents released on Monday. His pledge was dramatically proven wrong<\/a> within months.<\/p>\n

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More than 1,500 pages of files relating to the appointment of Mandelson, a friend of convicted sex offender<\/a> Jeffrey Epstein, as envoy to Washington at the start of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s second term were released by the government to comply with a demand by lawmakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They shed new light on the contentious decision and heap more embarrassment on beleaguered Prime Minister<\/a> Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

Among the documents is a note from Mandelson to then Foreign Secretary David Lammy in November 2024, before his appointment, pledging that the government would \u201cnever regret\u201d giving him the post.<\/p>\n

Starmer fired Mandelson after nine months when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein<\/a>, and fallout from the misjudged appointment has left the prime minister fighting for his job.<\/p>\n

Alex Burghart, a lawmaker for the opposition Conservative Party, said that the decision to appoint Mandelson \u201cis a failure that will define this prime minister\u2019s premiership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a failure that will be written as his political epitaph<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mandelson\u2019s security vetting process<\/p>\n

A first trove of files published in March revealed ministers had been warned that Mandelson\u2019s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to \u201creputational risk.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It was later disclosed that Mandelson had been approved for the ambassador\u2019s job despite failing security checks, a revelation that sparked bitter blame-trading between Starmer and senior civil servants.<\/p>\n

The files released Monday show officials from multiple departments discussing Mandelson\u2019s security vetting, a process that National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell described in previously released files as \u201cweirdly rushed.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

One senior Foreign Office official said the primary issue was \u201ctrying to get 101 things done in a very short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one email, Mandelson asked vetting officials if he needed to tell them about \u201cliterally every foreign national I have ever met.\u201d A Foreign Office official suggested he \u201csend over the handful of names you mentioned. … That will reassure the vetting team that you\u2019ve been comprehensive, even if it\u2019s all quite artificial.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains unclear why Mandelson failed security checks. The summary of his vetting wasn\u2019t among the documents released, as it\u2019s part of a police investigation into Mandelson for alleged misconduct in public office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Officials have said ties to Epstein are not the reason he failed the vetting. A background report drawn up by officials before Mandelson was appointed, released by the government in March, flagged business ties to Russia and China as a concern.<\/p>\n

Also missing is any record of what measures, if any, were taken to mitigate the risk of giving Mandelson the job.<\/p>\n

Mandelson refused to hand over information from his personal phone to officials, and the government \u201chas no further recourse<\/a> to search the personal devices of Peter Mandelson,\u201d the documents say.<\/p>\n

Mandelson, 72, was briefly arrested in February by detectives investigating allegations that he passed sensitive government information to Epstein when he was a Cabinet minister more than 15 years ago. He was released without bail conditions as the investigation continues.<\/p>\n

Mandelson was seen as a Trump whisperer<\/p>\n

Critics say Starmer\u2019s decision to appoint Mandelson is evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps<\/a> since he led the center-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024.<\/p>\n

But at the time, many saw it as a savvy move to deal with an unpredictable president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear that navigating Britain\u2019s interests through the Trump administration will require super-human skills<\/a> and luck and a massive team effort,\u201d Mandelson said in his November 2024 note to Lammy.<\/p>\n

Mandelson\u2019s expertise as a former European Union trade chief, charm and network of global contacts were considered assets in securing a trade deal with the Trump administration. It seemed to pay off, with a successful visit by Starmer to the White House in February 2025 followed by a U.K.-U.S. trade deal announced that May.<\/p>\n

In a letter to Starmer before the trip, Mandelson said \u201cAmerica first is the lodestar of his administration<\/a>,\u201d and the White House under Trump \u201cwill play the international system by a different set of rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandelson noted in an email that the prime minister and president had developed a \u201cstrong personal bond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s relationship with Trump later soured after the U.K. declined to join U.S.-Israeli strikes<\/a> and other efforts in the Iran war. Some aspects of the trade deal remain incomplete.<\/p>\n

Documents expose unflattering comments about Starmer<\/p>\n

Details about Mandelson\u2019s ties to Epstein, revealed in a huge trove of files published by the U.S. Justice Department in January, raised new questions about Starmer\u2019s judgment, driving opponents and some Labour lawmakers to call for the prime minister\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

Those calls intensified after Labour suffered big losses in local elections in May. A senior Cabinet minister, Wes Streeting, resigned with the intention of challenging Starmer for the Labour leadership. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is running for a seat in Parliament in a June 18 special election, and is also expected to challenge Starmer<\/a> if he wins.<\/p>\n

The documents show that behind closed doors, Mandelson didn\u2019t always give Starmer his full-throated support, and that government ministers also despaired at Starmer\u2019s lack of leadership within months of him taking office.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir is not leading from the front,\u201d Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said in a May 2025 WhatsApp exchange with Mandelson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mandelson\u2019s verdict was \u201cKeir lacks verve.\u201d He said that the government needed to act, \u201cdare I say it … in a more Trumpian risk<\/a> taking and dare devil way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, he despaired that the government was \u201cbeleaguered and bereft,\u201d and ministers don\u2019t \u201creally know what Keir thinks or wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact most of them don\u2019t think Keir knows what he wants,\u201d Mandelson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Peter Mandelson assured the British government it would \u201cnever regret\u201d appointing him as U.K. ambassador to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-616082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616082","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=616082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}