Conservatives allege Starmer withheld Mandelson WhatsApp exchanges amid document release
Alex Burghart questions volume of correspondence between Prime Minister and former ambassador, while Labour MPs assess fallout from 1,500-page disclosure.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart has accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to disclose the full extent of his WhatsApp correspondence with former European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson. The allegations emerged following the release of 1,500 pages of documents, compelled by a humble address tabled by the Conservative Party, which Burghart argued contained significant gaps and redactions.
Burghart pointed to what he described as “acres and acres of white space” and numerous redactions within the released files as evidence that messages may have been deleted or withheld. He highlighted that several senior ministers, including those close to Mandelson such as Peter Kyle, submitted “nil returns” regarding their exchanges with the former ambassador. This absence of recorded communication led Burghart to suggest that the lack of data indicated deliberate deletion rather than a simple absence of contact.
The scrutiny intensified after Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones was unable to provide assurance to the Commons that Starmer had not deleted any messages from Mandelson. When questioned, Burghart stated it “beggars belief” that there were so few recorded exchanges between the Prime Minister and Mandelson, implying that if messages were not handed over, they had likely been destroyed.
The controversy arose from Conservative efforts to establish whether Starmer was aware of Mandelson’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein at the time of his appointment as ambassador. While the document release did not yield new evidence to support these claims, some material relating to Epstein was withheld from publication due to ongoing police investigations.
Despite the political friction, reports indicate that the mood among Labour MPs regarding the Mandelson files was at the “top end” of expectations, with the impact deemed less severe than feared. However, the release did expose a private joke by Labour MP Pat McFadden regarding taxation, which has drawn comparisons to the political damage caused by Liam Byrne’s previous remarks about public funds.