Paul SeddonPolitical reporter
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Sir Keir Starmer has agreed to release files on his decision to pick Lord Mandelson as his US ambassador, after police launched a probe into claims the ex-minister passed sensitive government information to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Tories are pushing a Commons vote later to force the release of documents about how the peer was recruited into the role.
Downing Street has agreed to release documents, whilst exempting material that could damage national security or UK diplomatic relations.
Lord Mandelson has not responded to requests for comment, but the BBC understands his position is that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain.
The peer faces an investigation into alleged misconduct in public office, after claims he sent market-sensitive government information to Epstein whilst a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown’s New Labour government.
Emails released by the US Department of Justice on Friday suggest Mandelson forwarded Epstein an internal Downing Street memo in 2009 discussing possible government asset sales.
Other emails published in the tranche of documents appear to show he gave Epstein advance notice of a €500bn bailout by the EU to save the Euro in 2010.
Other emails suggest Epstein made $75,000 in payments to Lord Mandelson in three separate $25,000 transactions in 2003 and 2004. Lord Mandelson has said he has no record or recollection of the payments.
The peer, who gave up his Labour Party membership over the weekend, is set to stand down from the House of Lords on Wednesday. The government is drafting legislation required to formally remove his title.
The former minister was sacked from the job in September after seven months, after a separate release of emails showed he sent supportive messages to Epstein as he faced jail in 2008 for sex offences.
‘Maximum transparency’
A parliamentary motion drawn up by the Conservatives would force the government to release documents relating to his appointment, and the “due diligence” conducted by No 10 beforehand.
But in a bid to maximise embarrassment for Labour, it would also force the release of a much wider range of material, including any emails and text messages sent by Lord Mandelson to ministers in the six months before getting the role.
It would also force the disclosure of messages between the peer and Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s chief of staff, whom the Conservatives say has “serious questions to answer” over Lord Mandelson’s appointment.
Labour MPs will be instructed to vote for a government amendment that would agree to the release, but allow for information “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations” to be withheld.
It is not yet clear how this condition will be interpreted, or how how long it could be before any documents are released.
Speaking to the BBC earlier, Health Secretary Wes Streeting argued Sir Keir was “going for maximum transparency” in a bid to “reassure the public”.
Defending the decision to appoint him, he added the prime minister “had not been given the whole truth” about the extent of Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 awaiting trail on sex trafficking charges.
Lord Mandelson has apologised for continuing the friendship with Epstein after the financier’s conviction in 2008, adding he believed “lies he told me and so many others”.
