Kemi Badenoch has questioned why documents Sir Keir Starmer promised to release about Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador have not been published, accusing the government of attempting to hide information ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Conservative leader stated she would press the Prime Minister at Wednesday’s PMQs to explain the delay in releasing files showing how Mandelson was selected for the role despite his connections to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“Tomorrow at Prime Minister’s Questions, the Prime Minister will need to explain why the documents he promised to release last week have not turned up yet,” Badenoch said during a visit to a McDonald’s in Ruislip, north-west London on Tuesday.
She added: “What are they covering up? The Cabinet Office has told ministers not to release their text messages like (Health Secretary) Wes Streeting did. I think that there’s something they’re trying to hide and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”
The Tory leader returned to a McDonald’s kitchen for the first time in approximately 30 years, having worked at the restaurant chain as a teenager. She prepared a sausage McMuffin and a hash brown whilst wearing a personalised name badge displaying her “Leader of the Opposition” title, though one staff member warned she was “too slow.”
Speaking to reporters after her time in the kitchen, Badenoch claimed Sir Keir remained “in a very dangerous place” despite surviving an immediate coup attempt following Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s call for him to resign.
“I’ve got a lot of questions to ask him, but he is in a very dangerous place,” she stated. “The Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the quiet bit out loud. Labour MPs and the Labour Party have lost confidence in their leader.”
However, Badenoch suggested Labour MPs were preventing action against the Prime Minister due to concerns about their own positions. “The MPs are too scared of losing their jobs, so they’re not going to call an election, and they’ve given him a stay of execution,” she said.
The Conservative leader added: “The sad thing is that the country is suffering from not being governed at all.”
Sir Keir was granted a reprieve on Monday when Labour ministers failed to follow Sarwar’s lead and instead publicly pledged their support to the Prime Minister. The backing came despite the ongoing crisis over Starmer’s decision to appoint Mandelson as ambassador given his links to Epstein.
Asked about returning to McDonald’s after three decades, Badenoch said: “I did have a sausage and egg McMuffin. It’s been 30 years since I last worked at McDonald’s but there are lots of good memories.”
The Conservative leader has previously claimed she “became working class” whilst working at the restaurant chain as a 16-year-old.
Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions will provide the first opportunity for Badenoch to directly question Starmer about the missing documents since her public accusations of a cover-up. The exchange is expected to focus heavily on transparency around the Mandelson appointment process and what information the Cabinet Office is withholding.
The documents were promised by the government last week but have not yet been released to Parliament or the public, fuelling opposition claims of deliberate delay whilst the administration manages the political fallout from the scandal.
