The government has just published the first set of documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.
Our team is reading through the documents, which are expected to relate to the process of his appointment as US ambassador in 2024. We will bring you the updates as they come.
A due diligence report by the Cabinet Office on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US found there was a “general reputational risk” over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the documents reveal.
The due diligence report drawn up in December 2024 before his appointment noted a series of reports detailing his links with Epstein.
Here is one of those reports it detailed:
After Epstein was first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008, their relationship continued across 2009-2011, beginning when Lord Mandelson was Business Minister and continuing after the end of the Labour government. Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein’s House while he was in jail in June 2009.
The government has just published the first set of documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.
Our team is reading through the documents, which are expected to relate to the process of his appointment as US ambassador in 2024. We will bring you the updates as they come.
A ban on processions related to Al Quds Day will be in place until 11 April, home secretary Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.
In a statement to the Commons, she said:
My first duty is to keep the public safe, having carefully and thoroughly considered the risk … assessment presented to me by the Metropolitan Police, I am satisfied that an order under section 13 is necessary.
For one month there will therefore be a prohibition on processions in London related to Al Quds Day by protesters and counter-protesters, which will come into effect today and will end on the 11th of April.
Should the commissioner consider a further extension is required, he will be able to make a further submission at that time.
It follows the home secretary banning a pro-Palestinian march in London on Sunday after police warned of a risk of “serious public disorder”.
The annual al-Quds Day march has drawn criticism over apparent backing for the Iranian regime after its organisers expressed support for the country’s late leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Some participants in the past have waved the flag of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, which is banned in the UK as a terrorist group.
Keir Starmer has attacked Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage over their stance on the war in Iran, accusing both of U-turning on their support for Donald Trump.
At a raucous prime minister’s questions, Starmer accused the leader of the opposition of making the “mother of all U-turns” and furiously trying to backpedal after she denied calling for the UK to join the US president’s war on Iran on Tuesday, after previously saying Starmer should do more to “stop the people who are attacking us”.
Last week Badenoch repeatedly pressed Starmer on his decision not to launch offensive strikes to destroy missile bases, asking: “Why is he asking our allies to do what we should be doing ourselves?”
On Wednesday, Starmer said: “If I’d asked her last week, her position would be, we support the initial strikes and we want to join the war. This week, she says, we don’t want to join the war.
“That is the mother of all U-turns on the single most important decision a prime minister ever has to take, whether to commit the United Kingdom to war or not.”
To cheers from his own backbenchers, he added: “She has utterly disqualified herself from ever becoming prime minister, thankfully she never will.”
That concludes PMQs, with fuel duty and the war in Iran dominating the session today.
Starmer accused Badenoch of rowing back on calls for the UK to join the US in striking Iran, reminding her again and again of the comments she made last week about the British military “just hanging around” in the Middle East. He appeared confident in saying that he has made the right decisions so far on the conflict, which are in step with public opinion.
Answering questions on the cost of petrol, Starmer said fuel duty will remain frozen until September and will be “kept under review in light of what’s happening in Iran”, although he is under pressure to cancel it amid rising oil prices caused by the war.
We are expecting the Mandelson documents this afternoon, follow us here to get the latest lines.
Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) mentioned the Mandelson documents that are due to be released later today, saying they will bring to light “for the first time UK institutional knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein and those associated with him”.
She added that in the UK “we have our own Epstein, and Mohamed Al Fayed and the institutions that supported his crimes”.
Al Fayed, who died in 2023 aged 94, is the former owner of Harrods accused of sexually abusing women and girls over nearly four decades.
Chamberlain said the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for survivors of Al Fayed welcomed the actions of the Metropolitan police, “but we continue to call on them to describe those crimes as what they were trafficking”. She asked if the prime minister recognised that characterisation.
He responded:
I’m very happy to meet the APPG and the victims. I think it’s very important to do so. She’ll know there’s an ongoing police investigation, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have the meeting and listen to those that need to be listened to.
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, said Trump’s war in Iran “is illegal” and that the situation unfolding in the Middle East “is verging on insane”.
He asked the prime minister:
He’ll have seen the same footage I have of an American Tomahawk missile landing on a primary school, killing 110 children. Does he believe that to be a war crime?
This is in reference to a girls school in the town of Minab in southern Iran, which was hit by a missile on the first day of the US-Israeli bombing campaign against the country.
Starmer responded:
We’re all concerned by that footage. But let me be absolutely clear with him. We have 300,000 UK nationals, including Scottish citizens, in the region. Strikes, missiles and drones are being fired into the region, putting them at great danger.
We are taking action to protect them.
Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said families across the country have seen petrol prices rise at the pump, mortgage rates go up and fixed new deals get more expensive “all because of a war they did not start and do not support”.
He said:
The leader of the Conservatives has been competing with the honourable member for Clacton [Nigel Farage] to be Donald Trump’s biggest cheerleader, and the prime minister was right to reject their costly warmongering.
I asked him to guarantee the energy bills won’t rise by hundreds of pounds in July. He didn’t answer. So let me try again. Will he give people that energy bill guarantee now?
Starmer said he is working with the sector and allies “to do everything we can to make sure those energy bills don’t rise”.
He said:
We’re working around the clock on that. The most important thing, the most effective thing we can do is to work with our allies to find a way to de-escalate the situation.
He took the opportunity to take a swipe at Badenoch again and at Reform, saying they were “urging to join” the war in Iran.
“If they had been leading the country, we’d be in a war,” he said.
Answering Badenoch’s question about fuel duty, Starmer said it is going to “remain frozen until September”.
Badenoch asked about HMS Dragon – which departed the UK yesterday and will take five days to reach the Mediterranean – saying it would have left a week ago if she was prime minister.
Starmer said the ship has been “carefully being loaded with the anti-strike ammunition and capability that it needs, and the navy and civilians have been working 22-hour shifts in relation to it”.
He again points to Badenoch’s comments to the BBC last week suggesting the British military had been “just hanging around” in the Middle East as the Iran crises deepens, and says she should apologise.
Starmer told the Commons that Badenoch has abandoned her position on the UK joining the war in Iran.
“She told the BBC I haven’t said we should have gone in with the United States,” he said.
“That is the mother of all U-turns – on the single most important decision a prime minister ever has to take, whether it’s the United Kingdom to war or not.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch began by asking: “Why does the prime minister think now is the right time to increase the cost of petrol?”
Starmer responds by saying the UK is taking necessary measures to deal with the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.
“But the best thing that we can do, is to work with others to de-escalate the situation,” he said.
“As I said to the House last week, I took the decision that we should not join the initial US Israeli offensive against Iran.
“The leader of the opposition attacked me for that decision relentlessly. She said that the UK should have joined the US and Israel in the initial offensive strikes.
“And yesterday, in the wake of the economic consequences, the leader of the opposition totally abandoned her position.”
Starmer begins by telling the Commons that the armed forces are working day and night to protect British lives in the Middle East.
The prime minister thanked them for their “courage and for their professionalism”.
Starmer is about to begin PMQs, you can watch it on our live feed here:
Also this morning, a pro-Palestinian march in London on Sunday has been banned by Shabana Mahmood after police warned of a risk of “serious public disorder”.
The annual al-Quds Day march has drawn criticism over apparent backing for the Iranian regime after its organisers expressed support for the country’s late leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Some participants in the past have waved the flag of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, which is banned in the UK as a terrorist group.
Announcing her decision to ban the march after a request by the Metropolitan police, Mahmood said she was “satisfied doing so is necessary to prevent serious public disorder, due to the scale of the protest and multiple counterprotests, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East”.
Read the full report here:
Keir Starmer is pictured leaving 10 Downing Street as he makes his way to Prime Minister’s Questions, which begins at 12pm.
We will bring you all the latest lines so do follow along here.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
