Mandelson and Powell busy on Chagos…
From The Mandelson Files Volume 2:
“On 31 March the SRO (wrote to Peter Mandelson – via his solicitors – to request any information held on his personal phone. Peter Mandelson declined to comply with this request. The Government has no further recourse to search the personal devices of Peter Mandelson.”
This rare action from the ISC comes after the government failed to respond or act on its letter of last week complaining about extraordinary redactions to the second tranche of the Mandelson Files release. Watch along…
Darren Jones: “The government found a small number of extra documents that it submitted… The second tranche will now be published after Whitsun Recess.”
If you thought the Lord Mandelson scandal was Keir Starmer’s fault – considering he appointed the disgraced peer as US ambassador in the full knowledge of his intimate relationship with a convicted paedo – you haven’t read your FT this morning. A hilarious long read blames everyone but Starmer himself…
The pink’un reports:
“The idea was that someone with a hotline to Number 10 — a seasoned politician like Mandelson — should go to Washington, rather than the previous Conservative government’s choice of Sir Tim Barrow, a career diplomat. The idea of Mandelson as ambassador was first promoted by Mandelson himself, as the former New Labour grandee sought one final high-profile public role.”
Uh huh…
It includes laughable source quotes such as: “it’s ironic really, because Keir didn’t even like Mandelson“. That must be why he ignored the advice of the entire government machine, showered Mandelson in praise in public, and appointed him anyway….
Will end with a vote which Downing Street has taken the unprecedented step of three-line whipping. Not the done thing with Commons business…
The Tories are pleased it has got this far. A candidate in the local elections said: “The best outcome for us is that every single Labour MP votes to cover this up. Each and every MP that votes with the government will gift us another constituency that we can bury in leaflets over the next few weeks.” MPs who apparently want to replace Starmer won’t even vote to have his claims investigated in parliament…
McSweeney insists Mandelson had no involvement in the September 2025 reshuffle decisions, despite his best efforts:
“He texted me his thoughts… I did not respond to any of Mandelson’s texts. The text messages set out ideas of people that he thought should be in particular positions. None of his suggestions actually came out to be the case so his ideas were not followed up.”
MsSweeney also reveals the messages between him and Peter Mandelson on that day will be released in the second batch of the Humble Address documents…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”
