Damning Mandelson files leave Starmer reeling

The Telegraph

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The Mandelson files have been released and they're damning.

We've learnt that Starmer was warned the peer posed a reputational risk before he appointed

him, US Ambassador, and he knew that Mandelson was friends with Jeffrey Epstein after his

conviction for Peter Fillier.

We've sifted through the 147 pages of documents and deciphered the biggest revelations, including

that Mandelson was handed a £75,000 payout amid fears that he might go public.

Welcome to the Daily Team with me, Kimmel Atomini and me Tim Stanley.

Tim, we've got out the highlighters this afternoon, we've raided the station recovered, we've

got folders full of the first tranche of the D-D-D-D-D-D-Mandelson files, 147 pages, and

we wondered this morning how revelatory are they going to be, they're great, aren't they?

In the Parliamentary lobby this morning, we thought it might be disappointing, because

of course we were warned that one thing that will be missing from these files is what Peter

Mandelson said to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister's defence is Peter Mandelson

lied to me, but the little information that is contained in the files is devastating

and we shall explain why.

But let's quickly run through the timeline to remind ourselves of how we got here.

In December 2024, Keir Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson, former new Labour spinner, to

be ambassador to the United States.

Almost immediately, questions were raised about his known relationship with the convicted

Peter File Geoffrey Epstein.

Not least by this newspaper and we'll get on to that in just a minute.

Yes, as soon as February 2025, a journalist from the FT confronted about it and he famously

said F off.

But nonetheless, the relationship went so well, recall when Keir Starmer was present at

that meeting with the president, and there was this feeling that somehow the UK had managed

to play an important role in knitting the Western alliance together.

So a Donald Trump was warmed towards Mandelson, wasn't he, who's this wise guy?

Yeah, Trump liked him because Mandelson can be a very charming man, but in September of

last year, an infamous birthday book was released, Epstein's birthday book, in which Peter

Mandelson described him as my best pal, and he was photographed smiling at a bathrobe

sitting opposite the Peter File.

This opened up questions about their relationship.

Later in that month, Keir Starmer defended him at Prime Minister's questions, which of course

spelled Peter Mandelson's almost certain doom.

Within 48 hours and 48 hours.

He was fired.

He was sacked.

And of course, into the new year of this year, and Congress starts releasing Epstein

files, and Peter Mandelson is all over them and his underpants and his underpants.

We discover, for instance, that Epstein had given 10,000 pounds to Mandelson's husband

to fund an osteopathy course.

They suggest that Epstein lent Lord Mandelson 55,000 pounds between 2003 and 2004, but perhaps

most damningly, we discover that Peter Mandelson allegedly was sharing leaked market-sensitive

information to Jeffrey Epstein while he was working for Gordon Brown.

So he's business secretary, and within minutes seemingly of receiving sensitive information,

he allegedly passes it on to Jeffrey Epstein, which is significant for two reasons.

First of all, this is a post-conviction, Jeffrey Epstein.

Yes.

And second of all, he's an American financier with extremely controversial links and indeed

a criminal record.

Yes.

Of course, Peter Mandelson.

We have to keep saying throughout this broadcast denies everything, as does the former Duke

of York.

And the police are still investigating both for misconduct in public office.

We've witnessed in recent weeks, haven't we Tim?

Mandelson's home being raided.

The Andrew formerly known as Prince, having his homes, plural, raided homes have been

raided everywhere.

The investigation we must stress is ongoing, and so far no charges have been brought.

Mandelson, of course, was arrested very publicly, and his passport was confiscated after it

was rumoured that he might flee to the Virgin Islands.

His passport has now been returned to him, and he says that the rumour that he was going

to flee was nonsense.

So what are these documents?

Some of these documents are being viewed by the police, but this relates to a separate

investigation, cabinet office investigation, into the appointment of Peter Mandelson.

What advice was given?

Why was someone so controversial appointed?

And where precisely does blame lie for this appointment?

I was expecting just to see Tim, conversations about how he was vetted, the questions that

may have been asked about his past, and how it may affect his future, and for it just

to be left at that.

What we've actually got is an extra section on his severance payment, which is going to

prove extremely controversial, because basically the taxpayer has ended up paying this guy

around 70 grand.

He had asked for half a million, because the remainder of his contract, he was employed

on around £180,000 a year if you include resident staff.

That's more by the way than Keir Starmer, make a mental note.

He was arguing, well, actually I haven't seen the contract out, so you owe me half a million,

and actually the cabinet office and others have said no, you're just getting 70 grand.

Well speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, Darren Jones, who is the chief secretary

to the Prime Minister, actually said that the government negotiated him down to £75,000,

but agreed to that amount, quote, to avoid an employment tribunal.

Yes, and there is an email with Peter Mandelson saying, I think I know my employment rights,

which he would very well, he's a labour minister, but whatever happened to public service

and no bless oblige, what did Darren Jones say in sharing these documents with the House?

He began by expressing his, quote, disgust and horror, the nature and extent of the relationship

between Mandelson and Epstein.

He said the Prime Minister has taken responsibility for Peter Mandelson's appointment, the Prime

Minister has apologised, not least for believing Peter Mandelson's lies, and he said the Prime

Minister deeply regrets taking him at his words.

So as we go through what the documents say, that's the key thing that people have to bear

in mind.

How much did Keir Starman know?

We don't know what Mandelson said to him, but from these documents, how much did he know

before even speaking to Mandelson?

And the documents cover four key areas.

One, the initial advice that was given to the Prime Minister, second, Mandelson's resignation,

third, the investigation into the vetting, and finally, the question of the payoff which

we can return to later.

Quick point before we move to page two, the first page of our highlights.

The Prime Minister says he's taken responsibility for both the employing and sacking of Peter

Mandelson.

I'm not sure that's quite right, Keir Starman, I think Morgan McSweeney has taken responsibility,

his former Chief of Staff, who had to fall on his sword over this.

He's the one who's taken responsibility.

So if we move to page two, Tim, this is the first morning to the Prime Minister, that

if he makes this very political appointment, if he chooses somebody with the history of

Peter Mandelson, rather than a career diplomat, indeed, and let's not forget that Karen Pearce,

who was in place, was doing a perfectly reasonable job in getting on very well with Republicans.

And as it's pointed out in these documents, it is unusual to make a political appointment

like this.

Here's the killer line.

If anything goes wrong, you could be more exposed as the individual is more connected

to you personally.

That is a very stark warning that he is taking risk with this appointment now.

I know.

It is also said, if anything goes wrong, then it is arguably less destabilising if there

is a career diplomat in place for the government to change an official ambassador.

So he has been warned, this can come back to you personally.

And if something goes wrong with a political appointment, it'll be more embarrassing

than a diplomatic one.

There's more detail then in pages 10 and 11 about the actual risk of appointing a figure

like Peter Mandelson, and just to quantify it, this is so funny, because it's so bad.

It's so bad.

It's so bad.

It's like almost all bad.

It's not great.

Can I just point out just to quantify that the words reputational risk is used five times

and references to the Prime Minister's reputation are used eight times.

So he cannot be in any doubt whatsoever that the Prime Minister was very starkly and repeatedly

warned that the appointment of Peter Mandelson could cause him significant reputational

risk.

Well, this document, which dates from the 4th of December 2024, and is the, quote,

due diligence checklist on Peter Mandelson, this is where there are four references to

reputational risk.

Let's not even discuss Geoffrey Epstein.

Yes.

The document begins by discussing his role as president of Global Council, the strategic

advice consultancy.

High-profile clients include TikTok, Shell, Accenture, the Premier League, J.P. Morgan,

Santander, BP, size well C, and she and it says reputational risks could occur relating

to any of these clients dealing with the UK or USA government.

It notes, Global Council is currently under investigation by the registrar of consultant

lobbyists for failing to disclose the Katari Free Zones Authority as a client.

Right.

It's further reporting that it's taken from the daily mail in this warning document,

also pointing out that Mandelson served as a non-executive director of the Russian

Conglomerate Systema, which itself is a majority shareholder of RTI, a defence technology

company.

RTI produced radar and satellite communications for Russia's land-based missiles early warning

system, and its chairman was a Putin ally and former Prime Minister.

And also remained on the board until 2017, long after Putin's annexation of Crimea.

I mentioned that, because there's also a mention in this daily mail report, which has

been put before the Prime Minister, saying, the website of Global Council still contains

his flurry account of his October 2018 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

And I had previously reported about Global Council's links to China.

Well, there is a section that says that Peter Mandelson is, quote, seen as an advocate

for closer UK-China relations.

This falls under an entire page and a half, which is simply headlined, reputational

risks.

And again, we haven't even got on to Epstein yet.

It notes that he, quote, twice resigned as Labour Minister in the Blair Brown administrations,

concluding that there is general reputational risk around previous departures from the

new Labour government, both relating to financial matters, including high-profile donors

to the government.

So that's a reference to both the Hinduja scandal, in which Mandelson was embroiled.

And also that loan that he allegedly received from Geoffrey Robinson, a cabinet colleague

who himself was under investigation at that point.

After we get on to Geoffrey Epstein, because the telegraph has played a role, there is one

newspaper article cited here that it is recommended Keir Starmer reads about Mandelson's

historic links to Epstein.

Funny enough, Tim, I vaguely remember it, because my name is on it, along with two colleagues.

So I helped to contribute to this story, laying bare, in over a thousand words, why and

how and in what manner Mandelson and Epstein were intrinsically linked.

It's cited here as an example of evidence to show how close they were.

The Prime Minister definitely saw it, and yet we assume, chose to ignore it.

Well, let's say he doesn't know how to use a mouse, and he didn't click on the document,

and he didn't read what you wrote.

This document, again, this comes back to Peter Mandelson previously tried to suggest that

his relationship with Epstein was not very close and certainly not post-conviction.

Quote, after Epstein was first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008, their

relationship continued across 2009 to 2011, beginning when Lord Mandelson was business

minister, and continuing after the end of the Labour government.

Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein's house while he was in jail in June 2009.

In 2014, Mandelson also agreed to be a founding citizen of an Ocean Conservation Group, founded

by Gilein Maxwell, and funded by Epstein.

That does suggest a degree of closeness over quite a few years, doesn't it?

Yes.

The Cabinet Office, it says, holds official records that are likely to be released by the

National Archives early next year, which relate to a Tony Blair meeting with Epstein that

was facilitated by Mandelson.

Yes, Tim.

Let's turn to pages 16 and 17, where we have an email exchange between Peter Mandelson and

Jonathan Powell, May 2002, at that point Powell was chief of staff to Tony Blair.

This is Peter Mandelson advocating for a meeting between Blair and Epstein.

I just want to add, we're not 100% sure of Kirstama saw this.

It would make sense if he did, because his reference to and the other documents.

Well, it's also under the headline advice to the Prime Minister.

It must have been included in the comments.

Okay, let's assume he did, but here is Peter describing Epstein.

Jeffrey is an active scientific catalyst slash entrepreneur, whoever the hell that is,

as well as someone who has his finger on the pulse of many worldwide markets and currencies.

He is young and vibrant.

Can I point out that Jeffrey Epstein was 49 at the time this was written?

That's young.

He is safe, whatever that means.

And Clinton is now doing a lot of traveling with him.

Now, a document was later produced that month, sent from Matthew Reichroff to Blair to

explain who he was going to meet at 5 p.m. today.

Matthew Reichroff being a very senior member of the civil service.

He describes Epstein thus.

He is a financial advisor to the super rich and property developer.

He is a friend of Bill Clinton and Peter Mendelssohn.

And by background, he says, Epstein is, I mean, this almost turns my stomach.

It says in bold format, very rich, he has a $30 million home in New York plus a $10,000

acre ranch in New Mexico and a villa in Palm Beach.

He made his money working for billionaire Leslie Waxner, who owns among many other things.

The lingerie firm, Victoria's secret.

And the other detail that he shares is, he is again, this is in bold, close to the duke

of York.

He seems to have met Prince Andrew through Robert Maxwell's daughter, Gillane, with whom

he has had an on-off relationship.

He visited Sandringham and Windsor last year.

Nice.

Shall we fast-forward to, I mean, it is quite interesting, isn't it, just from a

voyeuristic point of view, to see the HR letter that was sent to Peter upon his appointment.

Yes.

So, Peter, congratulations on the new role.

We're really looking forward to working with you.

I understand you haven't received the attached forms yet, which Morgan mentioned to you this morning.

Now, I only mention that because Morgan being mentioned by first name only,

Nick Sweeney, does suggest, of course, and he has taken responsibility for this,

brackets, unlike the Prime Minister, a key role in this appointment, and indeed kind of

smoothing the logistics of the appointment.

That's what that email suggests.

We're in late 2024 now at the time of Peter's appointment as ambassador, and as you say,

we're discussing salary, and here's one memo that says the baseline salary is £153,000,

which is topped up with additional expenditure of 27,252.

That's for, quote, domestic help provided by resident staff,

taken together this revised total renumeration of £180,252.

I love that this message concludes with, I'm happy to discuss with you

once you've had a chance to reflect.

Can I just point out, perhaps, have a dance and punch the air?

Yes, exactly.

Can I also point out that this includes room and board?

He gets to say at the embassy.

Yeah. So this is extraordinary, really.

And by the way, it's more than the Prime Minister earns.

The Prime Minister's salary is currently up to £172,153.

So it is eight grand more, apparently, to be just the ambassador to the US.

I just also wanted to point out that at some point during this due process,

it is noted that Peter's nomination to be the US ambassador

has caused no issue in the Trump camp.

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OK, Tim, we now need to fast forward to the resignation.

But let's preface it by reminding ourselves

that on Wednesday, September the 10th,

at Prime Minister's questions, Kea Starmer said he had full confidence in Peter Mandelson.

The victims of Epstein are the forefront of our minds.

He was a despicable criminal who committed the most heinous crimes

and destroyed the lives of so many women and girls.

The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with him.

He's right to do so.

I have confidence in him and he's playing an important role

in the UK-US relationship.

The very next day, the wheels appear to come off.

Yet more documents come out that prove

that his relationship was far deeper than expected.

And according to a memo in this,

by Isla Terry, the private secretary of the Foreign Affairs of the Prime Minister's office,

the PM calls an emergency meeting in which he discusses it with all the affected people.

He says, quote,

the emails reveal the depth and extent of relationship with Epstein,

which the Prime Minister had not been aware of previously when he made the decision to appoint him.

And on this basis, he proposed to ask Mandelson to resign from his post.

Mandelson resigns.

And later that day, we now have a copy of the email that Mandelson sent to the staff

with tears in his eyes.

Quote,

I continue to feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein 20 years ago in the plight of his victims.

I have no alternative to accepting the Prime Minister's decision

and will leave a position in which I have been so incredibly honoured to serve.

Back in London, people start ringing around to ask what the hell went wrong.

Matthew Doyle, the number 10 director of communications, is embroiled in a fact-finding call

to try and find out, I think, where the number 10 can justify

believing Mandelson when he said he and Epstein weren't that close.

This could just call, called, occurred by the way on September 12th at 8 PM.

So that gives you a sense of how fast things are moving.

As part of this fact-finding mission that takes place in desperation on the 12th of September,

so this is the Friday, a conversation takes place between Matthew Doyle,

who had been number 10's director of communications but had left his role,

and a man called Mike Ostheimer, who is the general counsel to the PM.

So basically the PM's lawyer.

And in that, Doyle confirms, yes, he was a personal friend of Mandelson's,

that he would not have had a unilateral meeting with Mandelson to discuss his appointment,

that he did, however, have had a number of conversations with Morgan McSweeney,

which were one-on-one. He recalls other political meetings, some more formal than others.

He recalls some quotes back and forth with Morgan McSweeney,

which resulted in three specific questions for Lord Mandelson to answer

in respect of Jeffrey Epstein, possibly some discussion of global counsel.

We've already mentioned that, Tim, as well.

Doyle also remembers interactions with the four aforementioned Elsa Terry,

and Jonathan Powell on the matter, but not the details.

He believes that Jonathan Powell was particularly cautious about the appointment,

and will come onto that in just a minute, because there is a significant Jonathan Powell email

questioning the timing of it all.

And he does not recall any unique correspondence or a specific letter from Mandelson to the

Prime Minister about the appointment. That conversation just described Camilla took place at 8 p.m.

We have a summary of a conversation that then took place at 8.35 p.m.

between Mike Ostheimer and Jonathan Powell.

So Ostheimer, Keir Starmer's lawyer, gets off the phone from Doyle and immediately appears

to call Jonathan Powell. And I think, aside from the initial document informing the Prime Minister

of the many ways in which he should have been suspicious about Peter Mandelson,

if this cache of documents is merely a teaser to what we're going to read once the police

have released the rest, this is the biggest teaser of all.

Jonathan Powell, quote, found the appointment process,

unusual of Lord Mandelson, quote, weirdly rushed.

He said he does not recall any specific meetings on this that he was involved in,

though there were a few conversations, and says that he raised concerns about Mandelson

and his reputation to Morgan McSweeney, and Morgan McSweeney responded that the issues had

been addressed. So there you have Jonathan Powell saying that the whole process was weirdly rushed

and then being assured by Morgan McSweeney that the issues with regards to reputation had been

addressed. And that significant because Jonathan Powell was all too familiar with Lord Mandelson,

because he worked very closely with Tony Blair and was at the heart of that so-called

sofa new Labour government. So of anybody in Keir Starmer's team now, Powell certainly knew where

the bodies were buried. Can I just make a little note to page 98? I had got wind of this and I

think fed it into a story that the reason that Mandelson wasn't able to immediately vacate the

embassy in Washington was because of a problem with his dog, Jocke. We have that confirmed

in email correspondence saying that there has been a delay in obtaining Jocke's veterinary certification.

I was told that that they couldn't fly back because the dog hadn't been given the all clear.

Just a little K9 note there that you may appreciate. He has my sympathy on that score.

Should we talk about the severance payday? They should have sent HMS Dragon over to pick them up.

Unfortunately, it would have taken even longer and it could have fallen apart on route.

Should we get onto the special severance payment documents which are at page 107?

So they have to work out how they're going to safely and legally without incurring a tribunal,

Sac Peter Mandelson. Now, at the end of the day, Peter Mandelson knows about the importance of

allowing people to get filthy rich, provided they pay their taxes. But also, I would imagine,

has cribbed up on employment law during his many decades in labour politics.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office wanted to pay him 40 grand in lieu of three months notice

plus a termination payment of 34 grand, taking the total amount up to 75. It was argued by Oli Robbins,

then the permanent undersecretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This represents

good value for money. I'm not sure if taxpayers will agree with that verdict, but perhaps they

could agree if it meant averting a costly legal case, Tim. Well, maybe the government was looking

to dodge a bullet because we do have an email exchange in which officials discuss Peter Mandelson's

reaction to the offer. They say that, quote, he has sought advice during the conversation he

intimated that this had been from senior counsel, a KC specialising in employment law. So,

he might have been lawyering up. His argument heavily focuses on the reasonableness of the PM's

decision, which is funny because in the email to staff, we have him saying, I have no choice but

to accept, but it seems in private he may have been disputing how reasonable the decision was.

Yes. There is some carefully placed language around the public implications of not reaching a

settlement and the nature of an employment tribunal case. There you are, as I said at the very

beginning, Darren Jones said to the House, it was this, or we face a possible employment tribunal,

so there it is in black and white. And the author of this memo adds, there is a potential

that absent a positive indication Peter goes public on some of his claims, so there is some urgency.

And let's not forget that he had given recent interviews. He had given interviews to

Laura Coonsburg and had also done an at home with special in Times magazine. Let's fast forward

Tim to an email exchange in the October of 2025, just making a casual reference to the fact that

actually that 75 grand payout might not have been enough for Peter Mandelson. And there's a suggestion

here, it says it might be worth mentioning that he opened negotiations asking us to pay out his

contract over 500K. Mark did very well to get this settlement down, this low with minimal fuss.

So clearly, slightly Trumpian in his demand for half a million actually ends up settling

on under a hundred thousand. Yes, yes, well he really doesn't have a case does he because he was

resigning in disgrace. There's one more email that I just wanted to point out that I've only just

spotted in these files, which to be fair, we have been rapidly pouring over in a bid to get this

podcast out on time. This is from February 2026, so this month suggesting, I mean, because this

is the other side of this. Obviously, journalistically, it's fascinating. Anyone interested in politics

wants to be pouring over these documents. Of course, it's interesting to see imagery of

fallen politicians, fallen royals being questioned by the police and having their home searched,

but this is quite interesting and it may reflect sort of labor speak, but

this is between officials discussing Peter Mandelson's state of mind. It would also be great to know

that there has been a welfare check and to do one each day if that's okay for a while. I just

think that's interesting that on one hand they are, I mean, the administration has almost been

brought down by this guy. Keir Starmer at this point is completely on the rocks. Quite frankly,

he's thanking his lucky stars that there's a war in Iran going on in an attempt to overshadow

this story. And let's be honest, the thing we haven't pointed out is how many documents have been

unnecessarily added to this tranche in a bid to bury some of the more juicy details, but obviously

got an entire Westminster lobby pouring over it, including many journalists at this newspaper.

So there's not much hiding anything, but even as recently as last month, there are concerns

over Peter Mandelson's welfare. I think from the point of view of Madelson, the wrangling

over the settlement shows just how venial he is. And it confirms everything we think about the man.

This is not John Profumo getting caught going to work for the poor for the rest of his life

quietly. This is a man going down potentially threatening an employment tribunal.

As regards to the political fallout of this, people will be listening or watching this and wondering,

so when does the Prime Minister go? Yes. Now, the answer to that is, as we keep saying, this is

only part one. There is part two, which is Peter Mandelson and what he said to the Prime Minister

that was so convincing that it outweighs all of this. Yes. So what Kirsten will be saying

to his back benches right now is, you've got to wait and see, you've got to wait and hear. And so

that buys him a little time. Do MPs want to give him that? I suspect they do. I suspect they do,

partly because they looked into the abyss of a leadership challenge some time ago and realized

there was no one qualified to replace him. They don't want the chaos and they're all a little bit

running scared after Gordon and Denton, right? So give the Prime Minister time now to mount his

defense. But I think much of the public will be thinking, this proves that before we even get into

the weeds of what Peter Mandelson said, this proves that you knew enough that he was controversial,

that officials told you there would be potentially personally damaging fallout from employing this

person. And that what little evidence we have thus far suggests that the process of vetting was

expedited and was insufficient. Also, it confirms that the information was in the public domain.

It's interesting that a former lawyer should demand what we call in the trade a paginated bundle

of evidence. And actually this evidence may come to dam him. It's the technocratic approach

to turn around to the public and say, well, we are having an investigation and I will reveal the

paperwork only to realize that he's now hoisted by his own pertard. Yes. Because it's not just you

were told. Everything he was told was out in the open anyway. Yes. So it wasn't as if there was any

secrecy. No, you don't have to hurry Mason to find this. No, you just go on the telegraph website.

But also you can infer from the documents that officials were saying this man has a reputation.

Yes. So if the prime minister's defense is, well, I put all this to him and he told me it was wrong,

then why would you believe him? Oh my lord. Okay, let's finish with a little bit of political

reaction. Tim, Kenny Badenock, the opposition leader on X, Mandelson reportedly leaked sensitive

government documents. Starman, New Mandelson had stayed close friends with Epstein after the

conviction for child prostitution that made him ambassador anyway. Now we see he paid Mandelson

almost 80 grand of our money. His judgment is shocking. At Davey has argued that Mandelson should

donate that severance payout. He has said, quote, it's a sonishing Mandelson received a payout

even after his long standing connections to Epstein were discovered. These files show beyond

out the prime minister was made well aware of the risks of his appointment, what an insult to the

women and girls who suffered at Epstein's hands. The disgraced ambassador must donate any

severance payment he received in full to charity. These are the first documents in Britain's Epstein

files. The government must now release all documents relating to Andrew's appointment.

Love the Lib Dem leader. They're getting excited about Britain's Epstein files. Everything the

Americans could do. We can do better. Has Nigel Farage said anything? Not as yet. No, we wait

with baited breath. Now I feel a Q&A coming on Tim. We're doing this special daily tea

series on our socials, X, the tiki talk in Instagram, where we answer questions. We answer our

audience's burning questions. And clearly there are going to be many about these new, as Davey

is calling them Britain's Epstein files, the Mandelson files. We have our files and folders.

We have a set of highlighters. We won't be afraid to answer your queries. So do please get in touch.

You can email us at theDailyTatTelegraph.co.uk or you can contact us via those social channels

atDailyTpodcast. See you again tomorrow at 5 p.m.

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