It is, Downing Street has said, the most extensive release of government documents ever done in response to a Commons motion – nearly 1,500 pages in all. But what does the second and main tranche of documents connected to Peter Mandelson’s role as US ambassador to Washington tell us that is new?
- +What is new in the latest release of Peter Mandelson documents?
The so-called humble address motion that obliged the government to hand over documents was very broad but there are a few pieces of information missing.
The so-called humble address motion that obliged the government to hand over documents was very broad but there are a few pieces of information missing. An early passage about the scope of searches said that on 31 March this year, a government official wrote to Mandelson, via his solicitors, to request “any information held on his personal phone”.
It went on: “Peter Mandelson declined to comply with this request. The government has no further recourse to search the personal devices of Peter Mandelson.”
Perhaps less new than illuminating as to how and why Mandelson felt Starmer’s No 10 was underperforming, with many insights coming from his voluminous WhatsApp chats with Pat McFadden, one of Starmer’s most trusted ministers.
Downing Street is “beleaguered and bereft”, Mandelson said after a visit there in July 2025. Later the same day he described the PM’s habitual style to McFadden as “advance/buckle/advance/buckle”. Starmer, he argued another time, “lacks verve, as does the cabinet as a whole”.
McFadden, it is worth noting, has uncomplimentary views of his own, saying of Labour MPs about his then-role in the Cabinet Office: “Every meeting I have is, ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’ They’re asking the wrong questions.”
One item in the files is a handwritten note from Mandelson to David Lammy, then the foreign secretary, in November 2024, shortly before his role was confirmed.
Written on Mandelson’s own House of Lords paper, he hopes that Lammy has not found media speculation about the job “too irritating”. The note goes on: “I just wanted you to know that if you were to appoint me, I would make sure you never regret it.”
The former health secretary was close to Mandelson in the past, to the extent that in February he pre-emptively released his own copies of their WhatsApp messages to try to limit any political damage.
In July 2025, Streeting was expressing alarm at Israel’s actions in Gaza, and was among cabinet ministers trying to push Starmer for the UK to formally recognise Palestinian statehood.
“By way, I received a wild long hysterical message from Wes about Israel,” Mandelson wrote to Pat McFadden, adding: “I pushed back. I can forward but reflects pretty badly on his maturity in my view.”
Days later, after Streeting has lobbied cabinet colleagues for more action over Gaza, Mandelson told McFadden: “I think Wes is experiencing an early mid life crisis.” McFadden did not reply.
Messages between the pair are notable for their brevity and formality – unlike many of the other exchanges, it was clear that Mandelson and Starmer were not close.
In late June 2024, shortly before the general election, Mandelson messaged the Labour leader about things he had “picked up strongly on [the] doorstep” in Bury.
Shortly after the election, Mandelson messaged to say he had had dinner with Major, the Conservative former prime minister, that evening “and if you don’t know him I think good idea to invite him for a chat. As well as being a very nice person, he is interesting and thoughtful.”
He added: “Just a thought. No need to reply,” which Starmer did not.
Many people in the government would like to think they always had at least some doubts about the wisdom of appointing so tarnished and controversial a character. But the actual WhatsApp exchanges instead show a string of messages of congratulations to the new ambassador, some definitely verging on the fawning.
“Congratulations your excellency. What a wonderful appointment,” said then-junior minister Ian Murray. Steve Reed, who was environment secretary at the time, said: “Excellent appointment.”
Mandelson was always known to have a voluminous contacts book, and in the months before his appointment to Washington he did his best to use it to secure another role – chancellor of the University of Oxford.
The cache of WhatsApp messages show many in which Mandelson lobbies large numbers of Oxford alumni he knows – and in some cases barely knows – in politics to ask they vote for him. These include a series to Ed Miliband, several of which receive automated replies, including one that says: “This number is no longer used regularly.”
At one point Mandelson checks with Streeting to see if he has the correct number for Keir Mather, a new Labour MP, someone else he lobbies who does not reply.
