Epstein information newest: Starmer claims Mandelson ‘lied repeatedly’ throughout vetting for US ambassador position in PMQs showdown

This is the moment Keir Starmer told Parliament he regrets the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to the US.

Keir Starmer has told the Commons he will publish all documents related to Peter Mandelson except those that could impact national security.

He says:

I intend to make sure that all of the material is published… the only exemptions are national security… any anything that would prejudice international relations.

Starmer added the police had asked him not to reveal anything which could impact a criminal investigation.

The Metropolitan Police have been in touch with my office this morning, to raise issues about anything that would prejudice their investigations. We’re in discussion with them about that, and I hope to be able to update the House.

Sir Keir Starmer also told MPs he had agreed with the King that Lord Peter Mandelson ‘should be removed from the list of Privy Counsellors on grounds that he brought the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute’.

Keir Starmer has claimed Lord Peter Mandelson ‘betrayed our country’ by leaking to Jeffrey Epstein and had ‘lied repeatedly’ during the appointment process to the US ambassador job.

The Prime Minister said he regretted appointing Mandelson and that had he known the full details he wouldn’t be ‘anywhere near’ the ambassador role.

He made the remarks after Kemi Badenoch asked him if he was he aware that Mandelson had continued his friendship with Epstein, even after Epstein’s conviction for child prostitution.

Our live stream of Prime Minister’s Questions is now available above our posts.

Downing Street has added an amendment to the Tories humble address.

No 10 insists all documents will be published ‘except papers prejudicial to UK national security or international relations’, according to the Commons order paper.

But Labour MP Andy McDonald told Sky News he would probably still vote with Tories this afternoon.

‘If this amendment were to stand at face value it would be to throw a cloak over the entire Mandelson affair,’ he said.

‘We cannot have the government marking its own homework.’

Mr McDonald said the amendment was ‘a nonsense because it just is a way of not revealing information’.

The Tories last night tabled a rare ‘humble address’ to the King requesting the Government release documents surrounding Sir Keir’s decision to recall Lord Mandelson to government.

Humble addresses, if passed, are binding on ministers.

The arcane parliamentary mechanism is being used to try to compel the Government to release documents including due diligence work carried out by the Cabinet Office, emails between the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and Lord Mandelson relating to his association with Epstein, and minutes of meetings held about the appointment.

Kemi Badenoch last night urged Labour MPs to back the motion, which would also force the Government to release details of the six-figure payoff reportedly handed to Lord Mandelson following his sacking as US ambassador last year.

‘Labour MPs have a clear choice,’ she said.

‘Either they can support our efforts to reveal the truth about how and why Peter Mandelson was appointed ambassador to Washington despite his known links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein; or they can help Keir Starmer and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney dodge scrutiny over this sordid affair.

It’s a big day for Keir Starmer as he heads to the Commons for PMQs.

The Prime Minister is likely to be grilled over his appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to Washington following the newly released Epstein files.

Starmer has already been grilled by Kemi Badenoch over his judgment in appointing Mandelson and that will certainly ratchet up today after documents appear to show the peer leaked sensitive information to Epstein while in Gordon Brown’s cabinet.

Democratic Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández told Newsnight she wants Sir Keir Starmer to encourage Lord Mandelson to testify before the US Congress, and adds that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should too.

She said:

He should encourage him, because we do not have authority to issue a subpoena.

Congresswoman Leger Fernandez, who chairs the Democratic Women’s Caucus, warned that the United States has not yet seen the accountability survivors deserve.

She added:

I think the reckoning has to take place. I don’t think it’s actually happening yet, because we know that the Epstein files have not been fully disclosed, and we know this administration, the Trump administration, continues to stonewall and continues to make it difficult for the survivors to get the justice that they are seeking.

Watch her interview below:

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by Dan Woodland

Peter Mandelson appears to have plotted with Jeffrey Epstein to oust Gordon Brown as he struggled to cling onto power during his final months in office.

The disgraced Labour grandee seemingly schemed with Epstein behind Mr Brown’s back until his departure from government, often giving him the inside scoop right from the heart of Downing Street.

At times, Epstein appeared to urge Mandelson to make his own move for the top job despite his Labour peerage which prevented him from becoming PM.

In one exchange the paedophile financier appeared to joke that Mandelson should marry Princess Anne and then divorce her, which would effectively dissolve his Lordship status.

At other times Epstein flouted the idea of a joint leadership bid between his friend and David Miliband – another leading Blairite and close ally of the PM.

Lord Mandelson could have ‘lost the plot’ because he was ‘in love’ with Jeffrey Epstein, a former minister has claimed.

Shaun Woodward, who was Northern Ireland Secretary under Gordon Brown, made the startling suggestion as he admitted it was ‘hard to explain’ the actions of his long-term friend.

Mr Woodward told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme he was ‘absolutely astonished’ by the latest revelations.

‘It’s hard to explain how somebody so clever and smart did something which if (the emails) are right was anything but those things,’ he said.

Pressed why Lord Mandelson might have behaved in that way, Mr Woodward said: ‘I’m tempted to say he must have been in love with the guy and lost the plot.

‘It’s very hard to fathom how a senior Cabinet minister would have shared – if this is right and if these emails are bona fide – such information.’

Cabinet minister Wes Streeting said there was a sense of betrayal about Lord Mandelson’s actions.

He told Times Radio:

You can see the outrage across the political spectrum and from people up and down our country.

I cannot state strongly enough how bitterly that betrayal feels for those of us in the Labour Party who feel very personally let down and also feel that he, as well as betraying two prime ministers, betraying our country and betraying Epstein’s victims, has fundamentally betrayed our values and the things that motivate us and the things that brought us into politics, which is public service and national interest, not self-service and self-interest.