Mandelson due diligence report raised ‘serious questions’, minister admits – UK politics live
Opening summary: minister admits Mandelson due diligence report raises ‘serious questions’
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of UK politics.
A minister admitted that the due diligence report prepared for Keir Starmer before Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in 2024 raised “serious questions”.
Asked about the report, which pointed to concerns over the former business secretary’s relationship with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky News:
The prime minister then did put those questions to Lord Mandelson. The prime minister has said he was misled. He deeply regrets believing the reassurances he was given.”
That correspondence has not been published because it is subject to an ongoing police investigation.
Thomas-Symonds continued: “He has apologised for believing what was said to him by Peter Mandelson.”
The minister – who holds several roles, including paymaster-general – told the broadcaster that he shares the “the moral outrage” over Mandelson retaining his £75,000 payout after being sacked as ambassador, and called for the disgraced peer to hand the money to a charity.
Mandelson had originally sought a £500,000 payout.
Starmer is expected to face questions from journalists on a visit to Northern Ireland this morning. Stay with us for all the developments.
In other news:
Key events
Mandelson removed from privy council
Peter Mandelson has been officially removed from the privy council, a formal body of advisers to the monarch.
In the minutes of a meeting of the privy council on Tuesday (published today), it states: “An order striking out The Lord Mandelson from the List of Members of His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council.”
A spectacular fall from grace for Mandelson, who was appointed lord president of the privy council in 2009. While its function is largely ceremonial, the privy council is comprised of seniors parliamentarians past and present, leading members of the Church of England, senior judges, senior civil servants and Commonwealth representatives.
Tuesday’s routine meeting was held at Buckingham Palace, and was attended by King Charles, as well as home secretary Shabana Mahmood, environment secretary Emma Reynolds, Wales secretary Jo Stevens and Cabinet Office secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds.
Mandelson resigned from the House of Lords last month, but removing a peerage is a complex process.
Key details missing in Mandelson documents, says Badenoch
The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said key details were missing in the government documents released yesterday on Mandelson’s 2024 appointment as ambassador to the US.
During a visit to Flannery Plant Hire in Wembley, north London, Badenoch told the Press Association news agency:
A lot of information is missing.
I’ve been a minister and a secretary of state, the comments which Keir Starmer would have put on the box notes – those are the cover notes where you explain what you want to happen – are missing.
They have been removed. We need the full details of what the prime minister did. There is still a cover-up going on.
She added:
I am astonished that the prime minister can actually look himself in the mirror right now. It is very clear that he told lie after lie after lie about the appointment of Peter Mandelson.
He wanted to make this all about Peter Mandelson. This is about his judgments.
He has been dishonest with parliament and with the country. And Labour MPs, in good conscience, should be looking at whether or not this man should be leading our country.
Proposed law change will protect abusive men who push women to suicide, campaigners warn
Vikram Dodd
Also this morning, justice campaigners say men whose abusive behaviour drives women to take their own lives are more likely to get away with their crimes because of proposed law changes.
Ministers want to make it harder for inquests to pass verdicts of unlawful killing, which have been crucial in getting justice for women who killed themselves after suffering abuse.
In October last year, Georgia Barter was found to have been unlawfully killed after suffering a decade of domestic violence and abuse. In 2023, an inquest found that Kellie Sutton, whose death was classed originally as a suicide, was unlawfully killed after suffering domestic abuse.
The unlawful killing verdicts followed campaigns by the families of the women.
Harriet Wistrich, the head of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “We strongly oppose any reversal of the standard of proof for unlawful killing in inquest verdicts, which would set back the cause of highlighting the issue of recognising the role that domestic abuse plays in relation to the suicides of many women.
Read the full report here:
Tories repeat call for Starmer to resign over Mandelson
The Conservative party has repeated calls for the prime minister to resign over the Mandelson scandal.
The Tory deputy chair, Matt Vickers, said Keir Starmer “definitely should go”, telling Sky News:
It is a complete and utter failure of judgment on the part of the prime minister.
Remember when this thing broke, he told us that if he knew then what he knew now, he wouldn’t have made that appointment.
Anybody reading those files knows he knew more than enough not to make this appointment. His own national security adviser warned him about it. He knew that the man who he chose to appoint this country’s most prestigious diplomatic position had links to the worst, most evil paedophile ever to walk the earth. It’s unacceptable.
As a reminder of the key lines from yesterday’s Mandelson files – Keir Starmer overruled officials who warned of a “reputational risk” in making Peter Mandelson US ambassador, despite being handed a dossier of evidence about the peer’s relationship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The disclosure in newly released files will raise fresh questions about Starmer’s judgment – as well as about the vetting procedures at the highest levels of government.
The files show that Mandelson was offered a highly classified briefing from the Foreign Office (FCDO) even before he finished the formal vetting process.
They also show that two of the government’s most senior security and foreign policy officials – national security adviser Jonathan Powell and FCDO permanent secretary Philip Barton – raised concerns about Mandelson’s appointment due to his involvement in previous public scandals.
Read the full report here:
We have early pictures from the newswires of prime minister Keir Starmer in Belfast this morning, in his first public appearance since the release of the first tranche of documents relating to Peter Mandelson. He is expected to speak to journalists during the visit, before heading to Cork in the Republic of Ireland.
Analysis: Mandelson documents raise questions about Starmer’s decision-making
Pippa Crerar
Four months after Peter Mandelson was sacked as UK ambassador to Washington over his links with Jeffrey Epstein, he sat down for a primetime BBC interview. A less hubristic individual would have long since slunk away into the shadows.
But despite all the condemnation and humiliation surrounding his departure, Mandelson seemed intent on maintaining a public profile. “Who knows what’s next?” he told Laura Kuenssberg. “I don’t know what’s next. I’m not going to disappear and hide – that’s not me”.
For some inside Downing Street, those words sounded as a warning – or even a threat. Peter Mandelson still knows where the bodies are buried and could cause the government – and Keir Starmer in particular – a whole lot of trouble. A man scorned, and all that.
But even were he to take a vow of silence – and he does at least appear to be keeping a lower profile since the police launched their investigation – the prime minister’s decision to appoint Mandelson in the first place is still causing problems that could yet turn into another political storm.
Read Pippa Crerar’s analysis here:
Opening summary: minister admits Mandelson due diligence report raises ‘serious questions’
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of UK politics.
A minister admitted that the due diligence report prepared for Keir Starmer before Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in 2024 raised “serious questions”.
Asked about the report, which pointed to concerns over the former business secretary’s relationship with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky News:
The prime minister then did put those questions to Lord Mandelson. The prime minister has said he was misled. He deeply regrets believing the reassurances he was given.”
That correspondence has not been published because it is subject to an ongoing police investigation.
Thomas-Symonds continued: “He has apologised for believing what was said to him by Peter Mandelson.”
The minister – who holds several roles, including paymaster-general – told the broadcaster that he shares the “the moral outrage” over Mandelson retaining his £75,000 payout after being sacked as ambassador, and called for the disgraced peer to hand the money to a charity.
Mandelson had originally sought a £500,000 payout.
Starmer is expected to face questions from journalists on a visit to Northern Ireland this morning. Stay with us for all the developments.
In other news:
