The documents run to three volumes and more than 1,000 pages, and journalists are still going through them and digesting the contents. But, although they include some strong criticism of Starmer (mostly from Mandelson), some MPs may conclude that overall the revelations are less excruciating and embarrassing than they feared.
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
In a message on social media, Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, has posted this in response to the criticism he is getting from Keir Starmer and others. (See 6.04pm.)
As I often say in interviews and in the Department, “we have to change the question the system asks from “what benefits are you entitled to” to “how do we help you change your life”.
From BBC PM programme…last Thursday (28 May).
He has also posted a link to the BBC interview from last year.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has said that Pat McFadden’s comment about the views of Labour MPs on welfare reform last year (see 3.15pm) confirms her claim that Labour is “the welfare party”.
She said:
It doesn’t matter who is in charge of these people, the party for Benefits Street will tax us all into poverty to pay for more welfare.
Pat McFadden has said in private what he and the prime minister deny in public. As I’ve said repeatedly, Labour MPs don’t understand where money comes from. They think our taxes are their money to spend, rather than the result of the hard work of the people in our country who deserve so much better.
Helena Horton is a Guardian correspondent.
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, agreed with a controversial intervention by Tony Blair made last year, during which he caused major upset in the government after rubbishing Labour’s net zero plans.
They were referring to an unhelpful intervention made by Blair last year on the eve of the local elections. The former prime minister commented that Miliband’s net zero plans to limit fossil fuel use and extraction were “doomed to fail”.
In WhatsApp messages to Mandelson, McFadden described Blair’s comments as “spot on” though added: “His office got their timing wrong. Better to have been next week.”
Mandleson seemed unimpressed by Ed Miliband’s response to Blair. The energy secretary said the intervention was “short sighted” and defended his investment in the green economy.
Mandelson said to McFadden: “Ed M couldn’t resist yesterday. So personal and stupid.”
Many energy experts have suspected that Mandelson may have been lobbying behind the scenes to get the government to ditch its net zero plans.
In the messages, he tells McFadden: “I don’t think the government has clocked just how central energy supply and costs are to our economic future”, adding that more energy is needed for “AI and manufacturing success”.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) was “cut out of conversations” about the US trade deal in May 2025 over concerns about leaks to the press, the Press Association reports. PA says:
In a series of WhatsApp exchanges with then-communications director at No 10 Steph Driver, Peter Mandelson said the department was being “irresponsible”.
On May 6 2025, he said: “We are reaching a critical time on trade negotiation here and it would be helpful if DBT could stop guiding papers eg. FT (Financial Times).
“We want the deal when agreed to make its own impact not conditioned by pre-briefing.”
Driver replied that she shared his “view and frustration”, and special advisers and officials had been “warned of the risks and sensitivities” while the Cabinet Office had started a leak inquiry.
The next day he shared an article on the trade negotiations from the Guardian with Ms Driver, saying: “This is utterly irresponsible by DBT I assume.”
Driver replied: “I assume too. We cut DBT out of conversations today, the risk is too high.”
Mandelson complained again about briefings from DBT on May 30, after the deal had been announced, saying the department needed to “get off their backsides and co-operate properly with us”.
And he complained again on July 17 about stories in Politico and the Daily Telegraph on efforts to press Donald Trump to cut tariffs, saying: “Can you stop this stuff from DBT?”
He added: “We are trying our best here but this is totally counterproductive designed purely for a domestic audience.”
Here are some revelations from the Mandelson files picked out by journalists at other news organisations.
From Arj Singh at the i
The King asked No 10 if a senior royal should pull out of a conflict-focused visit to the US days after Trump’s bust-up with Zelensky
From Anna Mikhailova at Times Radio
NEW: Wes Streeting joked to Peter Mandelson there should be ‘Mandy the Movie 2’ – in newly-disclosed messages with the then-ambassador Streeting’s comments were in a group chat where he, Mandelson and two others joked about dinners at Roger Liddle’s house
From Richard Holmes at the i
BREAK: Foreign Office staff advised Peter Mandelson to mislead vetting officers about his foreign connections in order to obtain the highest level of security.
New documents released by the Cabinet Office reveal extra scrutiny was placed on Mandelson’s connections to foreign nations by vetting officers.
In response to a request for a detailed list of his overseas connections during the process, the then-Head of US Global Issues and Canada Team at the Foreign Office advised Mandelson send a “handful of names” even though he didn’t consider them “close contacts”.
“That will reassure the vetting team that you’ve been comprehensive,” the Foreign Office official told Mandelson, “even if it’s all quite artificial”.
Big questions about how this process was managed under severe time (and political) pressures.
Peter Mandelson on one occasion urged No 10 not to say anything “disobliging” about Nigel Farage, the files reveal.
He offered the advice to Matthew Doyle, No 10 director of communications at the time, when Doyle asked for guidance on a Sun on Sunday story saying Nigel Farage had been talking to Keir Starmer’s team about dealing with Donald Trump.
Doyle asked if he could deny the story. In response, Mandelson said he had in fact exchanged messages with Farage. He urged Doyle not to say anything “disobliging” about the Reform UK leader, and Doyle agreed he would say it was a story that No 10 did not recognise.
This also provides a useful guide to the code people in government use when trying to get reporters not to follow up stories. When they say they “do not recognise a story”, it is often a sign that there is at least some element of truth in it.
The exchange is on page 187 of volume 3.
Government really is like the Thick of It. That was the verdict of Peter Mandelson when commenting on the implementation of the plan to present Donald Trump with a cabinet-style red box.
Here is an email from Olly Robbins, head of the Foreign Office at the time, from August 2025 explaining why this was seen as a good idea.
And here is an email from Mandelson to Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff, implying he is worried it won’t be ready on time. “This is like something out of the Thick of It,” he said.
Unfortunately, we don’t know the details because so much has been redacted.
(Anything deemed prejudicial to foreign relations was redacted, and so if officials were at any point discussing the president’s colossal vanity and self-importance, then that would have been blotted out.)
In the end Trump did get the red box when he came to the UK for the state visit in September.
Daniel Boffey is the Guardian’s chief reporter.
Peter Mandelson was being treated as a “rather unique case” in being given sight of highly classified material before being vetted, Foreign Office officials had warned the intelligence services ahead of a proposed meeting between the Labour peer and the head of MI6. (See 4.18pm.)
We already knew from Olly Robbins evidence that Mandelson was getting this case-to-case access but it is interesting to note that officials regarded it as “rather unique” and that it was worth the head of MI6 having fore-warning.
Here is the relevant email. It is from a JCS – junior civil servant – to someone at MI6, where C is the boss.
Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, is, like Pat McFadden, someone who worked closely with Peter Mandelson during the Blair/Brown years. Here are exchanges from during and after the general election campaign of 2024 showing Alexander thanking Mandelson for the support he gave in getting Alexander to get selected again as a Labour candidate.
And here is Alexander congratulating Mandelson on being appointed ambassador.
They are from pages 170 and 171 in volume 3.
Darren Jones also told MPs that some messages between Peter Mandelson and ministers were not available because of disappearing messages or a change in devices.
Jones said that included some of his own messages with Mandelson.
He said;
I can confirm that we have conducted multiple rounds of discovery from relevant ministers, special advisers and officials in line with the motion passed by the House. This has involved requesting searches of email messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp and other related communication services on both work and personal devices.
However, the House should note that some messages may not have been backed up where devices may have been changed or disappearing messages were turned on for reasonable and permitted reasons, including before the dismissal of Peter Mandelson, or the passing of the humble address, myself included.
I do recall having some limited exchanges with Peter Mandelson over WhatsApp, including those I’ve already discussed in the media, but these conversations did not involve transacting government business, and were in line with official guidance on the use of non-corporate communications channels at the time.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, told MPs in a Commons statement that no files in the tranche of Mandelson documents released today were redacted without the approval of the parliament’s intelligence and security committee.
In a statement, Jones said:
I can confirm that no material has been redacted on the grounds of prejudice to national security or international relations without the committee’s approval.
Further limited redactions have been made outside of the ISC process in respect of information that relates to junior officials’ names, contact details like telephone numbers and email addresses, the personal or commercially sensitive data of third parties not relevant to the motion, and, where relevant, legal professional privilege.
I can also confirm to the house that no Government minister or special adviser has determined any of the redactions themselves.
The redaction process has been overseen by Cabinet Office officials, and, where relevant, in agreement with the ISC.
Jones also said that Simon Hoare, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee, had reviewed the government’s approach to third-party reductions in the documents and agreed they were “sensible, reasonable and proportionate”.
Henry Dyer is a Guardian investigations correspondent.
Before Peter Mandelson had completed the developed vetting process, he was receiving sensitive briefings about the Foreign Office’s work, including planned with the head of MI6, the files reveal.
Specially declassified emails say that Mandelson and Richard Moore, the former chief of MI6 (a role known as ‘C’) had directly agreed to meet in early January 2025 before Mandelson went to Washington. During this time Mandelson was still going through the developed vetting process.
A meeting was agreed between them, hosted by C at MI6’s headquarters, to be held after an Atlantic Partnership breakfast, an event which appears to have been planned for 15 January 2025.
As well as plans to meet C, emails note Mandelson had already met in early January with Q: the head of MI6’s technology branch.
Intelligence officials told counterparts in the Foreign Office that , in addition to meeting with C, they wanted to use Mandelson’s presence as a chance to “arrange wider briefings” on topics including “Russia/Ukraine, China, CT [counter-terrorism], the Middle East and cyber.”
At the same time, Mandelson was in the process of declaring to vetting officials his ties to top figures in Russia, China, and Israel, including Oleg Deripaska, who had been sanctioned by the Foreign Office.
Mandelson’s private secretary in the Foreign Office told MI6 they should be aware Mandelson had not yet received DV clearance but had been given access to “higher classification material on a case-by-case basis”. The official said it was for C and other senior MI6 officials to judge what was appropriate.
It is not clear from the documents whether Mandelson’s meeting with C and the security briefings went ahead.
One of the revelations from the Mandelson files is that Peter Mandelson was very, very obsessed with becoming chancellor of Oxford. Before his appointment as ambassador, when he was contesting the election for the chancellor’s position, he seemed to spend a lot of time contacting Labour MPs with Oxford links who he thought might be able to help him.
Here is an exchange on this theme from August 2024 with Georgia Gould, who was Cabinet Office minister at the time.
Gould is the daughter of the late Philip Gould, the pollster and political consultant who was very close to Mandelson from the time when they were both members of Tony Blair’s inner circle in the 1990s.
Peter Mandelson described Wes Streeting as “pathetic” and going through an “early mid life crisis” in an exchange with Pat McFadden in July 2025.
It is on page 254 of volume 3.
It is understood that McFadden and Mandelson were referring to Streeting circulating video evidence of alleged war crimes in Gaza, including atrocities involving children.
Officials discussed the need to “delete all traffic” in one exchange published in the files. It is on page 386 from volume 2. Ailsa Terry, private secretary for foreign affairs at No 10, told recipients about the need to “delete all traffic on this”. Peter Mandelson also gave the same advice.
Parts of the emails have been redacted, and it is not clear what they were discussing.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
