LONDON – British ministers braced on June 1 for the release of potentially embarrassing documents relating to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s controversial appointment of Peter Mandelson as envoy to the US.
Hundreds of files expected to run to more than 1,000 pages were to be published on June 1 as the scandal over Mandelson’s links to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returns to plague Starmer and his embattled Labour administration.
It will be the second tranche of documents to be published covering Mandelson’s brief stint in Washington in 2025, which ended after the extent of his friendship with Epstein was revealed.
“The volume of information that’s going to be put out is unprecedented,” government minister James Murray told Sky News.
The documents are expected to include messages between Mandelson and ministers and government advisers, including Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney who resigned for advising the prime minister to make the appointment.
The government has said it is withholding some documents on the advice of police, who are investigating Mandelson over alleged misconduct in office more than a decade ago.
Mandelson is accused of leaking sensitive information to billionaire financier Epstein during his time as a government minister. He denies wrongdoing. Epstein died in a US prison in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Members of Parliament voted in February to force the government to publish documents about Mandelson’s appointment.
Documents released in March revealed Starmer was warned that Mandelson, a Labour party veteran, posed a “general reputational risk” because of his connection to Epstein but appointed him anyway.
Starmer’s decision to give Mandelson the plum diplomatic post in December 2024, and then sack him nine months later, has dogged his flagging premiership in recent months.
It contributed towards dire election results in Scotland, Wales and England in May, that triggered calls from dozens of Labour lawmakers for Starmer to resign.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is contesting a special election to return to Parliament later in June that is widely believed to be a precursor to challenge Starmer for the party leadership.
Starmer has apologised for appointing Mandelson, as well as to the women trafficked by Epstein, but has refused to quit.
The controversy has claimed the jobs of Starmer’s former chief of communications and the most senior civil servant in the foreign office, who the prime minister fired for not telling him or other ministers that Mandelson had not passed security checks for the role. AFP
