Cabinet ministers initially withheld their messages with Lord Mandelson from Parliament before being pressed repeatedly to hand them over, The Telegraph has revealed — with the disclosure adding fresh impetus to accusations of a deliberate cover-up surrounding the disgraced peer’s appointment as US ambassador.
According to The Telegraph, government officials dealing with the Mandelson files were forced to ask ministers more than once to surrender their WhatsApp messages and emails after initial reluctance. Under the terms of a “humble address” motion passed in February at the Conservatives’ initiative, all ministers, officials and special advisers were legally required to submit any communications they had exchanged with Lord Mandelson.
The paper describes the reluctance as having complicated a process already mired in controversy. The Intelligence and Security Committee criticised the government for redacting documents “far too broadly,” and shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart accused the government of conducting a “cover-up,” saying it was “outrageous that Labour are trying to withhold documents about the Mandelson-Epstein affair from Parliament.”
A second tranche of Mandelson files is expected to be published imminently, and according to The Telegraph, it is set to reveal that Lord Mandelson spent significant time during his ambassadorship messaging Cabinet ministers with advice on how to conduct their official business — suggestions described as “mostly unsolicited” — in what would constitute a significant overstepping of his role at the Washington embassy. Among the ministers whose messages are expected to feature are Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has already separately published some of his exchanges with Mandelson after what he called “a weekend of smear and innuendo.” Those messages, first reported by Sky News, showed Streeting in March 2025 telling Mandelson he thought he was “toast” at the next election, and criticising the government for having “no growth strategy.”
The disclosure process has been dogged by questions about missing and deleted material throughout. The government has indicated it is uncertain whether messages deleted via WhatsApp’s disappearing messages feature can be recovered, with Cabinet Office minister Chris Ward unable to confirm to MPs whether such communications could be retrieved. Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff who resigned in February over his role in the Mandelson appointment, had his phone stolen — meaning potentially critical messages between the two men may be permanently lost.
Officials are also preparing to ask Lord Mandelson himself to hand over messages from his personal phone, having so far only had access to his work device. The request is understood to cover all communications in scope of the humble address motion, including messages with ministers and McSweeney dating back to summer 2024.
Lord Mandelson was sacked as US ambassador and subsequently resigned from the Labour Party over his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Metropolitan Police is now investigating him for alleged misconduct in public office. His position, it is understood, is that he has not acted criminally and was not motivated by financial gain.
The revelation that ministers actively dragged their feet over surrendering their communications will intensify scrutiny of the government’s broader handling of the affair — and raises further questions about what the second tranche of files, due for release next week, will contain.
