Senior government figures will have to hand over their messages with Peter Mandelson ahead of the release of files related to the prime minister’s decision to appoint the former peer as US ambassador despite his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
The government is set to publish Mandelson’s vetting documents in the hopes that transparency will help Sir Keir Starmer weather the political storm threatening his leadership, after he apologised to victims of Epstein for the appointment.
On Wednesday, the prime minister backed down and ceded control to parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) to decide what would not be released into the public domain based on national security concerns.
In a letter to the prime minister on Thursday, the committee outlined the scope of material it expected the government to hand over.
This included all “electronic communications and minutes of all meetings” between Mandelson and ministers, government officials and special advisers during his time as US ambassador.
On Friday morning, migration minister Mike Tapp said he had not yet been asked to hand over his communications with the former Labour peer.
“I haven’t been asked,” he told BBC Breakfast. “But I have had communication with Lord Mandelson, and that was after my first morning round as a minister, where I refused to defend him, and he sent me his resignation letter.
“So I’m probably not in his good books, and I don’t care, because we don’t need people like that in government or around government in any way, shape or form.”
The ISC said in its letter that it expected the government to “very shortly” lay the papers before the House, but said it cannot commit to a timetable for reviewing documents.
Asking the government to provide a date on which it would send the material to the committee, the letter said ministers would have to provide “a clear and logical rationale” as to why publication of any documents would be “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”.
But the committee said it could not commit to a publication date “until we know the size of the task at hand”.
Sir Keir is hoping the release of the vetting documents will prove he was lied to and “misled” by Mandelson before he appointed him as US ambassador.
No 10’s former communications director warned more government figures could be implicated in the scandal if told to hand over their private messages with Mandelson.
“I don’t think anyone can understate the gravity of the situation,” James Lyons told BBC Newsnight.
“We’ve seen with the Covid inquiry how a huge amount of stuff can be thrown up through that. I think this is at least the biggest scandal since the expenses scandal of 2009.”
On Thursday, the prime minister apologised to victims of Epstein for believing Mandelson’s “lies” and handing him the Washington job.
He has faced a barrage of criticism from his own MPs amid growing anger over the way he has dealt with the issue, but has insisted: “None of us knew the depths and the darkness of that relationship.”
The situation has led Labour grandee Harriet Harman to warn Sir Keir that he must take action over the scandal or risk losing his job.
Baroness Harman told Sky News: “I think it is so serious for Keir Starmer. I don’t think it’s inevitable that it will bring him down.
Speculation over the future of his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney has also continued, with some Labour MPs openly calling on the prime minister to sack his right-hand man.
Mr McSweeney has been blamed by many Labour MPs for pushing for the appointment of his ally Lord Mandelson, and for bringing him back into the heart of a Labour government.
Paula Barker, Labour vice-chair of both the standards committee and the privileges committee, criticised Sir Keir’s “questionable” judgement over the saga, adding: “When your chief of staff becomes the story, then often it’s time for them to go.”