UK PM Starmer to chair Cabinet after Mandelson files lay bare splits

(Alliance News) - UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will chair a meeting of his Cabinet on Tuesday after messages released in relation to Peter Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US laid bare splits within Labour.

Starmer sacked Mandelson in September 2025 after growing pressure to remove him from office following leaked emails which showed the peer sent supportive messages even as Jeffrey Epstein faced jail for sex offences.

MPs voted earlier this year to force the disclosure of documents relating to his time as ambassador.

The more than 1,000 pages of documents in the second tranche released on Monday included records of WhatsApp exchanges between Mandelson and Work & Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden that revealed the latter's frustration with his colleagues.

In May 2025, in the wake of local election setbacks and the Runcorn by-election defeat, McFadden said: "Lot of manoeuvring here this week. Angela [Rayner], Gordon [Brown]. Doesn't feel good for Keir."

He also complained that Labour MPs were "asking the wrong questions".

"Every meeting I have is 'who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others'," he said.

McFadden, who was the senior minister in the Cabinet Office at the time, also acknowledged Starmer's authority risked being destroyed by a Labour revolt over welfare reforms.

In June, shortly before the government caved in to provide a series of concessions to rebel MPs, he said: "I think it's very bad. Defeat, pull Bill or gut it all destroys his authority."

McFadden became the Work & Pensions Secretary, responsible for the welfare system, in September 2025.

Mandelson was highly critical of Starmer's operation in messages, saying the prime minister "lacks verve" and that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could not explain where economic growth would come from.

In a message to McFadden in July 2025, he said: "I went into No10 after I saw you. It is beleaguered and bereft. It requires complete revamp and infusion of purpose and confidence to get anywhere."

In the same month, he said the government "doesn't do policy, generally speaking, well enough", in a message to pensions minister Torsten Bell.

Bell told him: "That is definitely true – everyone seems to think it's someone else's job to get the policy right… Which is very odd."

Mandelson replied: "As the saying goes, rubbish in rubbish out…"

MPs will have the opportunity to debate the second tranche of files on Wednesday.

Also in the files:

– Mandelson was disparaging about Wes Streeting's "hysterical" comments after the former health secretary messaged him about recognising a Palestinian state.

– Mandelson "declined to comply" with a request to hand over his personal phone to allow access to his WhatsApp messages and other information related to his appointment.

– Cabinet Office officials initially believed he would not require developed vetting because of his status as a member of the House of Lords, but later decided he would.

– Emails showed that the Foreign Office gave Mandelson access to "higher classification material" on a case-by-case basis before his developed vetting was cleared.

– Mandelson sent a note to then-foreign secretary David Lammy about being potentially made ambassador, saying "if you were minded to appoint me I would make sure you never regret it".

– Mandelson lobbied several ministers to support his bid to become chancellor of Oxford University.

– He requested to be put on the Foreign Office payroll after a Shanghai conference took place as he had committed to a paid speaking engagement that he would attend virtually on behalf of his company Global Counsel. However it is not clear whether he actually went ahead and spoke at the conference.

By Helen Corbett, Press Association Political Correspondent

Press Association: News

source: PA

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