Nigel Farage said there were serious questions to ask over whether Peter Mandelson breached the Official Secrets Act by referencing security apparatus in Whitehall in emails to Epstein. At a press conference this afternoon he said:
“I also wonder whether in emails to Epstein [Mandelson] talked about the security apparatus that exists underneath Number 10 and at the heart of Whitehall. That is information that is of national security importance. And so I think there is reason to ask the question whether Mandelson has not broken the Official Secrets Act. I’d like to know whether Lord Hermer would be happy and satisfied for a prosecution to proceed on that basis. I think it’s that serious.”
Mandelson was updating Epstein on the location of Prime Minister in SW1’s secret tunnel system on an almost real-time basis. This migraine for Starmer isn’t going away despite Mandelson resigning from the Lords…
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns told Times Radio she would have put a precondition on a China trip if she were PM:
“I would have put a precondition that I was not going to go if I was prime minister, unless Jimmy Lai was coming home with me. I would also put a precondition in the six months leading up to the visit that I wanted a reduction in hostile acts against our country. But that’s not what we saw. And actually, in contrast, what we saw was clearly the Chinese Communist Party did put a precondition, which was that the new embassy in London had to be signed off. So why is it okay for China to set preconditions and to make very clear red lines about what they require for a visit, but we go without having put any ourselves?”