The British Government has been in crisis for months over the controversial appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States, being as he was a bosom friend of the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Now, forced by criticism, Labor’s Keir Starmer’s cabinet has been forced to publish a second batch of official documents on that appointment… and they have not exactly served to clean up its image.
The more than 1,500 known pages about Mandelson reveal compromising details about security check failures and the former diplomat’s close ties to the deceased sex offender, leaving the premier fighting to maintain his political position in the face of growing calls for his resignation.
Among the most notable papers in this leak, forced by Parliament, is a note sent by the diplomat (and gray brain of the Social Democrats for years) in November 2024 to the then Secretary of Foreign Affairs, David Lammy, before formally assuming the position, in February 2025. In said letter, Mandelson tried to dispel any doubts about his suitability by convincingly assuring that the Government “would never regret” granting him the diplomatic position in Washington.
However, the appointment resulted in a resounding failure. Mandelson, 72, was suddenly dismissed after only a few months in office, after the US Department of Justice brought to light documents that showed that his relationship with Epstein was much deeper and longer than he had publicly admitted, extending even after the financier’s conviction in 2008.
Starmer is not directly affected by these new files, but he is certainly in a bad light due to inaction and lack of guarantees in the decision-making processes.
An “artificial” and rushed security process
The new public administration files shed light on Mandelson’s rocky security evaluation process, which, let’s say, had little guarantee, when his treatment with the American, who committed suicide in the summer of 2019, was already known. A first delivery of documents, last March, had already confirmed that Starmer ignored the explicit warnings of his advisors about the “reputational risks” that the Labor veteran’s friendship with Epstein entailed.
In addition, it was revealed that Mandelson was sent to Washington despite having failed strict security controls, a ruling that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to unilaterally annul.
The published emails and text messages now show, again, British officials discussing a screening process that National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell came to internally describe as “strangely rushed.” In one of the communications, a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs admitted that the department’s main problem was “trying to do 101 things in a very short time.”
For his part, Mandelson showed impatience during the investigations into his past, going so far as to ask those in charge of the evaluation by email if he really needed to talk to them about “literally every foreigner I have ever met.” At that comment, a ministerial official suggested that he simply “send the handful of names you mentioned”, adding compromisingly: “That will reassure the evaluation team that you have been thorough, even if it is all quite contrived.”
“That will reassure the evaluation team that you have been thorough, even if it is all quite artificial”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives an update on the situation in the Middle East in the Downing Street briefing room in London on March 5, 2026.
The ‘premier’, criticized
A series of WhatsApp messages exchanged between Mandelson and Pat McFadden, then Minister of Intergovernmental Relations, in May 2025 reflect a negative view of Starmer’s leadership that certainly does not leave him in a good light. McFadden spoke to Mandelson, who was then ambassador in Washington, about the Labor Party’s losses in local elections.
Discussing possible next steps and strategy forward, McFadden, who is now Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said on May 2: “What do we actually do?” To which Mandelson responded: “The problem comes from above and Keir [Starmer] It lacks dynamism, as does the Cabinet as a whole. “Generally, people have good intentions, but we need more people who know how to follow through.”
“The problem comes from above and Keir [Starmer] “It lacks dynamism, as does the Cabinet as a whole.”
“The Government must visibly and tangibly adopt knowledge and take risks in everything that contributes to the growth of the economy,” he advised. “There is great interest in British investment in the United States… there is a lot of good will, but the British government’s involvement has become routine and distant,” he adds.
Months after his criticism of Starmer, the former ambassador presented McFadden with an even bleaker assessment of Downing Street. In further WhatsApp messages, dated 30 July 2025, Mandelson said: “I went to number 10 after seeing you. It is struggling and desolate. It needs a complete makeover and an injection of purpose and confidence to achieve anything.”
Reflecting on the office staff premierMandelson went on to say, “They don’t work as a team, they don’t have a leader, and none of them really know what Keir thinks or wants. In fact, most don’t even believe Keir knows what he wants.”
¿Y Trump?
The magazine Time has investigated the documents and finds emails exchanged between London Government officials in the weeks prior to the visit of the American Donald Trump to his country, in September 2025. They seem to show “some frustration” on the part of Mandelson regarding the efforts to organize a gift for the president.
In a email dated August 26, 2025, Olly Robbins, the former senior British civil servant who was fired in April amid controversy over the ambassador’s appointment, tells Cabinet Office staff that “one of the gifts that would mean the most to the President would be a red shipping box with the gold shield and lettering that imitates a United Kingdom Government ministerial box, but with the inscription ‘President of the United States’.”
Mandelson expressed frustration about the debate over the box and how the issue still had not been resolved just a month before Trump’s visit.
In another message to Morgan McSweeney, the former Downing Street chief of staff who resigned in February after taking “full responsibility” for advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson, the former ambassador said: “This is like something out of Thick of It… I’ve gone crazy over this.” He was referring to the satirical BBC series, which premiered in the mid-2000s.
In another message, Mandelson again complained about “incompetence” in organizing the gift, after expressing concern that it would not be ready on time.
Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, in a file image.
Police investigations underway
The exact reason why Mandelson failed the original security checks remains a mystery, say the BBC or the Times. The detailed summary of his evaluation has been withheld by the authorities because it is part of an active criminal investigation by the British police against the former ambassador for alleged misconduct in the exercise of public office.
Suspicions suggest that Mandelson may have leaked confidential and market-sensitive government information to financier Epstein in 2009, when he served as business minister under Gordon Brown (also Labor).
In connection with this case, Mandelson was briefly arrested in February 2026 and, upon his release without precautionary measures, his lawyers stated that his “absolute priority is to cooperate with the police investigation, as he has done throughout this entire process, and clear his name.” The files also reveal that the former minister flatly refused to hand over his personal phone, to which the Executive admitted that “he has no more resources to search Peter Mandelson’s personal devices.”
This latest wave of revelations has seriously undermined the credibility and political judgment of the Labor Prime Minister, Starmer, who at the time went so far as to publicly apologize to Epstein’s victims for having believed what he classified as “Mandelson’s lies.” The opposition and several disgruntled members of his own party have stepped up pressure for him to leave Number 10 Downing Street. Reflecting the general sentiment of the critical wing, a British parliamentarian stated that the management of this crisis is extremely serious for the prime minister: “It is a failure that will be written as his political epitaph,” AP quotes.
