Mandelson appointment ‘weirdly rushed’, top Starmer aide warned

Edited by Maxine Kelly and Franklin Nelson in LondonLucy Fisher and Jim Pickard in LondonChief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones announces the release of some documents on Peter Mandelson's appointment as US ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US was “weirdly rushed”, Sir Keir Starmer’s national security adviser said, according to the first tranche of files relating to the peer’s selection for the diplomatic role. New Labour veteran Jonathan Powell “was particularly cautious about the appointment” and “raised concerns” about Mandelson and his “reputation”, documents published on Wednesday showed. Mandelson’s ties to Epstein and his two resignations from Sir Tony Blair’s government were described as evidence of “general reputational risk” in the due diligence documents prepared for the prime minister. The checks flagged that the peer had continued his relationship with Epstein after the financier’s conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. Alex Burghart, Conservative shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “The prime minister claims he was lied to. He wasn’t lied to by this due diligence document.”Other documents showed Mandelson demanded £547,000 as compensation for his sacking as UK envoy to the US last September — his salary over his full contractual term. He ultimately received severance pay of about £75,000, consisting of £34,670 of discretionary payments on his departure, on top of the £40,329 to which he was legally entitled. The prime minister agreed to release the papers in response to questions about Mandelson’s vetting in 2024 and what was known about his links to Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019.But only a small proportion of the documents — expected to run into the tens of thousands overall — was published on Wednesday afternoon. Some papers are being held back from public view while Mandelson — who has insisted he has not acted in any way criminally and was not motivated by financial gain — is investigated by the police for possible misconduct in public office. After the documents were released, Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, said they showed the “due-diligence process fell short of what is required”.“Jeffrey Epstein was a despicable criminal who committed the most horrifying and disgusting crimes . . . [His] victims will always be our priority,” he told MPs. Jim Pickard in LondonMinisters are braced for a deluge of further revelations concerning the appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as UK envoy to the US, even after the first tranche of documents was published on Wednesday. One reason for Number 10’s nerves is that the release consisted of 147 pages, the tip of the iceberg out of an estimated 100,000 documents that could end up exposed to the public’s gaze. The government is obliged to produce any messages between Mandelson and senior government figures for six months before his appointment, as well as during his stint as ambassador. He took up the role in February last year and was sacked in September. Only those messages posing significant security concerns — as decided by parliament’s cross-party intelligence and security committee — will be exempt. Lucy Fisher in LondonSir Keir Starmer has ordered an overhaul of Whitehall standards to bolster the vetting process around key appointments and to strengthen financial interest declarations in the wake of the Lord Peter Mandelson scandal.The Cabinet Office said the “Mandelson case has . . . shown more needs to be done”, as it announced plans to review the national security vetting system.Officials would also examine “how ministers and senior officials declare and publish their financial interests, how transparency around lobbying is enforced, and whether the rules on post‑employment activity are fit for purpose”, the department said.Moves to tighten House of Lords rules on lobbying to bring them into line with the House of Commons are also being explored.Mandelson, who was sacked as UK envoy to the US last year, quit the Lords last month but retains his title. Jim Pickard in LondonThe Tories have urged Peter Mandelson to repay his severance payment while the Liberal Democrats have said he should give the money to charity. There was also criticism from the Labour benches after the release of the documents. Rachael Maskell, a Labour left-winger, said Mandelson’s associations had left a “stench” around the appointments process and also called for more scrutiny of the former ambassador’s business relationships through his firm Global Counsel. Justin Madders, a former Labour minister, said he “struggled to understand” why Mandelson had received “a penny” of any payment beyond his statutory obligations. “The risk of an employment tribunal in these circumstances was miniscule,” he said. “That money should have been paid to a victims’ charity.”Chris Cook in LondonOne of the most important documents released on Wednesday is from a minute of the inquest into Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US. It reveals revelations among some of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s key staff.Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.Jim Pickard in LondonAlex Burghart, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, hit out at the prime minister’s defence that he was lied to by Peter Mandelson, saying that Starmer was not “lied to by this due diligence document”. Burghart said: “It ought to have been the prime minister sitting there, because this is all about the prime minister’s judgment . . . the man who made the decision, judgment is under question.”The Tory MP pointed out that the vetting files showed how Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein had continued even while the former was business secretary and the latter was in jail. “Maybe the prime minister was lied to,” he said, “but he was lied to by an inveterate liar who had been sacked twice before.”He asked why ministers agreed to any severance pay for Lord Mandelson. “I think a lot of our constituents will be disgusted that Peter Mandelson received £70,000,” he said. Burghart also asked for more clarity on which documents were being held back and on what basis by officials. Lucy Fisher in LondonMorgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, dismissed issues raised about Lord Peter Mandelson and his “reputation” in relation to his appointment as US envoy, the files released on Wednesday suggest.Minutes of a Whitehall call on September 12 2025 show that Jonathan Powell, UK national security adviser, “raised concerns about the individual and reputation to Morgan McSweeney (MM).”The memo added: “MM responded that the issues had been addressed.”The memo also noted that Powell believed that Starmer “may have had a couple of political conversations” around these concerns, but that Powell had not been party to the discussions.Sir Philip Barton, who was Foreign Office permanent secretary at the time of Mandelson’s appointment, “also had reservations around the appointment”, according to Powell, the memo said.Anna Gross in LondonEmail extracts between Lord Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein published last year “revealed a depth and extent of a relationship” that Sir Keir Starmer had “not been aware of previously”, according to the files published on Wednesday.The comments, from a readout of a meeting held in September to determine the US ambassador’s role was still tenable, stated that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer raised concerns about the “judgements and views expressed” in a cache of emails released by Bloomberg.The readout added that the “answers Mandelson provided to [Foreign Office permanent secretary] Olly Robbins regarding the emails did not give [Starmer] confidence that there were not further revelations to come”. Starmer also noted “serious discomfort” inside the Parliamentary Labour Party as a reason for ultimately asking Mandelson to resign as US envoy. Mandelson was later sacked from the role. Jim Pickard in LondonSir Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader, said the payout that Lord Peter Mandelson received after being sacked as UK ambassador to the US should be given to charity.“It’s astonishing Mandelson received a payout even after his longstanding connections to Epstein were discovered. These files show beyond doubt the prime minister was made well aware of the risks of his appointment,” he said.Davey added that Mandelson, who was sacked from the top diplomatic role last September, “must donate any severance payment he received in full to charity”.Jim Pickard in LondonDarren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, told the House of Commons it was important to have “full accountability and transparency” over the release of the documents.“It is important to recognise the strength of feeling on all sides of the House . . . of the disgust and horror at the nature and extent of the relationship that Peter Mandelson maintained with Jeffrey Epstein despite his criminal conviction for abusing a vulnerable young girl,” he told MPs.Jones said that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had apologised for having believed Mandelson’s “lies” about the extent of his contact with the disgraced paedophile financier.Jones added: “Jeffrey Epstein was a despicable criminal who committed the most horrifying and disgusting crimes that destroyed the lives of countless women and girls. Those victims will always be our priority and Peter Mandelson’s behaviour was an insult to them and their suffering.”Lucy Fisher in LondonLord Peter Mandelson said, in his farewell email to all Foreign Office staff last year, that he regretted his “association with Epstein twenty years ago”.However, Mandelson was still in contact with Epstein as recently as 2016, according to emails in the so-called Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice earlier this year.Mandelson said in his valedictory message: “The circumstances surrounding the announcement today are ones which I deeply regret. I continue to feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein twenty years ago and the plight of his victims.”George Parker in LondonThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was concerned Lord Peter Mandelson could challenge his sacking at a tribunal.The FCDO noted that Mandelson was not accused of any “misconduct in role that would give rise to normal disciplinary proceedings” and that if the ex-ambassador took the case to a tribunal it could cause “reputational damage to the FCDO and HMG [the government]”, according to documents published on Thursday.Mandelson was offered a special termination payment of £34,670 — of which £30,000 was not subject to income tax. The FCDO said that “given the highly political nature of the withdrawal, this is a reasonable settlement that would allow HMG to announce that the individual is no longer employed”.George Parker in London Lord Peter Mandelson challenged the “reasonableness” of Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to sack him as UK ambassador to the US as part of discussions over a severance package, according to the files published on Wednesday.In an email sent on September 23 2025, Mark Power, the Foreign Office’s chief people officer, suggested the department needed to reach a settlement quickly or risk Mandelson creating problems in the media.“There is a potential, that absent a positive indication, Peter goes public on some of his claims so there is some urgency,” Power wrote.Mandelson’s proposed £75,000 pay-off — including a discretionary payment of £34,670 — was referred by Sir Olly Robbins, Foreign Office permanent secretary, to Treasury chief secretary James Murray because of the fact “the case will attract public interest”.Jim Pickard in LondonThe vetting file also included Mandelson’s position on Beijing as another potential reputational risk.It said that he had long called for closer engagement with China, saying in 2018 that it was “absurd” to put such a weighty country in the diplomatic “naughty corner”. It added: “Mandelson gave a speech at the University of Hong Kong where he claimed that the rule of law and independence of the judiciary remain intact there.”In addition, the vetting file included some Daily Mail reporting about his time as a non-executive director of Russian conglomerate Sistema, the majority shareholder of RTI, a defence technology company. It added: “The website of Global Counsel still contains his flowery account of his October 2018 meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping.”Jim Pickard in LondonThe documents suggest that Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, was directly involved in discussing Mandelson’s friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “We have sought a due diligence review from PET (enclosed) and your chief of staff has discussed Peter’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein which we will go through with you,” wrote Nin Pandit, a senior civil servant.Last month McSweeney resigned from his Downing Street position amid scrutiny over the appointment. At the time, he said the decision to give Mandelson the US envoy role was “wrong”. George Parker in LondonFiles show that Jonathan Powell, Sir Keir Starmer’s national security adviser, “was particularly cautious about the appointment” of Mandelson as ambassador in December 2024 and that Powell believed the process had been “weirdly rushed”.Powell had served with Mandelson under the previous Labour government.Lucy Fisher in LondonThe Foreign Office told Lord Peter Mandelson that it would brief him “at higher tiers” from January 6, apparently before he passed developed vetting — the level of security clearance required to access sensitive information at the department.Sir Philip Barton, then permanent secretary at the department, said in an email to Mandelson on December 23 2024 that one of the “most important first steps” in his appointment as UK ambassador to the US would be “going through the vetting process”.However, in the same email he told Mandelson: “We’ll brief you further in person from 6 January onwards, including at higher tiers.”In a separate email on January 30 2025, Sir Oliver Robbins, who succeeded Barton as Foreign Office permanent secretary, told Mandelson: “Your security clearance has been confirmed by Vetting Unit and is valid until 29 January 2030.”Jim Pickard and Chris Cook in LondonThe two-page vetting document suggests Lord Peter Mandelson “facilitated” a meeting between former prime minister Sir Tony Blair and Jeffrey Epstein.In a note to Jonathan Powell, the prime minister’s chief of staff, Mandelson wrote: “Do you remember when [Bill] Clinton saw TB he said he wanted to introduce his travelling friend, Jeffrey Epstein... I think TB would be interested in meeting Jeffrey, who is also a friend of mine, because Jeffrey is an active scientific catalyst/entrepreneur as well as someone who has his finger on the pulse of many worldwide markets and currencies. He is young and vibrant.” The documents also included Mandelson’s paid engagements, primarily with banks. They mentioned his role as “president and chairman of international advisory board” of Global Counsel, the advisory firm, with clients including TikTok, Shell, Santander, BP, Shein and JPMorgan. Jim Pickard in LondonThe government has released the vetting documents around Mandelson’s appointment, which amounted to just two pages of background information. Under “reputational risks” the document mentioned that he had twice resigned from New Labour administrations over scandals. Under “relationship with Jeffrey Epstein” the document referred to the 2019 JPMorgan report — first disclosed by the FT — which said that the financier appeared to “maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson” and showed that he reportedly stayed at “Epstein’s House” while he was in jail in June 2009. Jim Pickard in LondonThe documents, released just minutes ago, show that Lord Peter Mandelson demanded £547,000 as compensation for his sacking last September.“Negotiations began with a request by the individual to pay out the remainder of the 4-year salary costs of the fixed-term appointment. This would have amounted to £547,201,” the documents showed. The papers also show that Sir Keir Starmer’s government signed off on a discretionary payment of £34,670 on Mandelson’s departure, on top of the £40,329 he was legally entitled to, bringing the total to almost £75,000.Jim Pickard in LondonPeter Mandelson has insisted that he has not acted in any way criminally and was not motivated by financial gain. The US Department of Justice’s “Epstein Library” — in which the former New Labour cabinet minister was mentioned 5,680 times — recorded three $25,000 payments from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s JPMorgan accounts, all mentioning Mandelson, in 2003 and 2004. Other emails showed that Epstein sent thousands of pounds to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, Mandelson’s husband, in 2009 and 2010. By this time Mandelson had returned to government as UK business secretary and wielded huge power as de facto deputy prime minister to Gordon Brown.Mandelson also enjoyed Epstein’s hospitality in the form of free flights and stays at his Manhattan mansion and his private island. The files also showed Mandelson leaking sensitive government information to Epstein and working behind the scenes to soften a proposed bankers’ bonus tax that the financier opposed. Lucy Fisher in LondonSir Keir Starmer was forced to agree to the release of the documents last month by the Conservatives, who tabled a parliamentary motion known as a “humble address” pushing for transparency. The initial papers will be published following a statement to the House of Commons by Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister. Jones has insisted a “big number” of the documents would be released, even though it will be a small fraction of the total. He said the second tranche will come “later”, telling Sky News on Wednesday: “There’s been further work that we’ve had to do across government in response to the humble address, which is not quite ready.“And we have two other processes that take a bit of time,” he added, citing the ongoing Metropolitan Police investigation into Mandelson and the role of the intelligence and security committee in parliament.Jim Pickard in LondonAmong the documents is expected to be the due diligence report on Peter Mandelson given to Keir Starmer before the prime minister gave him the most glamorous job in the diplomatic service. Questions have been raised over whether that due diligence probed deeply enough into the activities of Mandelson, who set up a major lobbying firm called Global Counsel — with advice from Jeffrey Epstein — soon after quitting politics in 2010. Mandelson also took a directorship with a Russian conglomerate in 2013. The Times reported on Wednesday morning that the due diligence included an FT article from 2023 that highlighted the extent of the relationship between Mandelson and Epstein. That FT report referenced emails suggesting that the British politician stayed at the disgraced financier’s $77mn mansion in Manhattan while Epstein was in jail for soliciting sex from a 14-year-old. Mandelson has insisted that he has not acted in any way criminally and was not motivated by financial gain. Comments have not been enabled for this article.