{"id":836770,"date":"2026-06-01T12:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/836770\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:25:28","slug":"new-trove-of-mandelson-files-spells-bad-news-for-keir-starmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/836770\/","title":{"rendered":"New trove of Mandelson files spells bad news for Keir Starmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 His poll ratings are dismal and rivals are eyeing his job. Now British Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a> faces more embarrassment on Monday with the publication of hundreds of pages of files about former U.K. ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson<\/a>, a friend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The government says it will comply with a demand by lawmakers<\/a> to release documents related to Mandelson\u2019s appointment to, and conduct in, the U.K.\u2019s most important diplomatic post. Starmer\u2019s office said the publication on Monday afternoon will be an \u201cunprecedented piece of government transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandelson was fired after nine months, and fallout from the misjudged appointment has left Starmer fighting for his job<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A first trove of files published in March revealed ministers had been warned that Mandelson\u2019s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to \u201creputational risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

It later was disclosed that Mandelson had been approved for the ambassador\u2019s job despite failing security checks<\/a>, a revelation that sparked bitter blame-trading between Starmer and senior civil servants who oversaw the security vetting.<\/p>\n

The files being released Monday could run to more than 1,000 pages and are expected to include emails and text messages between Mandelson and government ministers and advisers.<\/p>\n

Police have asked for some documents to be withheld because they form part of a criminal investigation into Mandelson for alleged misconduct in public office. Mandelson, 72, was briefly arrested in February by detectives investigating allegations he passed sensitive government information to Epstein when he was a minister in the British government a decade and a half ago.<\/p>\n

He has been released without bail conditions as the police investigation continues.<\/p>\n

Health Secretary James Murray said Monday that the release marked an \u201cunprecedented\u201d level of transparency from the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s right we do that. We have been very clear that the appointment of Mandelson was wrong,\u201d he told Sky News.<\/p>\n

Conservative lawmaker Alex Burghart said any attempt to withhold or redact more documents than those requested by police \u201cwill be viewed by the House as a contempt of Parliament, and as a cover-up by the British public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer fired Mandelson<\/a> in September 2025 after an earlier release of documents showed he had maintained contact with Epstein after the financier\u2019s 2008 conviction for sexual offenses involving a minor.<\/p>\n

Critics say Starmer\u2019s decision to appoint Mandelson is evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps<\/a> since he led the center-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory<\/a> in July 2024.<\/p>\n

Details about Mandelson\u2019s ties to Epstein, revealed in a huge trove of files<\/a> published by the U.S. Department of Justice in January, raised new questions about Starmer\u2019s judgment, driving opponents and some Labour lawmakers to call for the prime minister\u2019s resignation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Those calls intensified after Labour suffered big losses in local elections in May. A senior Cabinet minister, Wes Streeting<\/a>, resigned with the intention of challenging Starmer for the Labour leadership. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham<\/a> is running for a seat in Parliament in a June 18 special election, and also is expected to challenge Starmer if he wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 His poll ratings are dismal and rivals are eyeing his job. Now British Prime Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":836771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[7373,342998,240561,84,90,57,51,342999,15053,17723,50,45805,80,10409,52,376,4338,35039,107],"class_list":["post-836770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-2026-elections","tag-alex-burghart","tag-andy-burnham","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-james-murray","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-keir-starmer","tag-news","tag-peter-mandelson","tag-politics","tag-sexual-assault","tag-top-stories","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-kingdom-government","tag-wes-streeting","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116674843470204217","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}