Downing Street ordered daily “welfare checks” last month on the UK’s sacked former ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, as a furore intensified over his links to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ailsa Terry, an aide to Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer, asked UK foreign office staff to monitor Mandelson “for a while” on the same day that the House of Commons passed a motion obliging the UK government to release files on his appointment.
The first tranche of files released on Wednesday also show that Starmer was directly warned in a report of the “reputational risk” of appointing Mandelson to the Washington role, when he was considered for the job in December 2024. The report prepared also specifically mentioned his known links to Epstein.
The so-called Mandelson Files also reveal that Starmer’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, believed the appointment of Mandelson to the role was “weirdly rushed and unusual”. His opinion emerged in emails sent in the days after Mandelson was sacked last September.
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Powell, who was a close aide of former prime minister Tony Blair, also raised concerns over Mandelson’s “reputation” at the time of the appointment with Starmer’s then chief of staff, Cork man Morgan McSweeney, who quit last month over the general row around the issue.
Messages between British officials show McSweeney personally questioned Mandelson, who was his mentor earlier in his career, over his links to Epstein. The former ambassador’s answers were relayed to Matthew Doyle, who was then Starmer’s director of communications.
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Doyle, whom officials noted was a personal friend of Mandelson’s, was said to be “satisfied” with the answers received. Doyle was subsequently appointed to the House of Lords but lost the whip last month in a separate row over his links to a child sex offender in Scotland.
The files released on Wednesday also reveal that Mandelson, who has denied any wrongdoing in his links with Epstein, asked for the more than three years remaining on his contract to be paid up when he was sacked, which would have cost UK taxpayers almost £550,000. His lawyers said his job prospects had been “permanently damaged”.
UK foreign office officials initially offered him just three months severance pay, but eventually they settled for £75,000.
The messages released on Wednesday also include a note from Mandelson to UK government officials after his sacking in which he asks for their help to leave Washington with “maximum dignity and minimum media intrusion”.
Other messages exchanged between officials show the UK’s foreign office was worried Mandelson might “go public” with some of his grievances around his sacking.
Darren Jones, a member of Starmer’s cabinet who works in Downing Street, told the House of Commons on Wednesday that Mandelson “should never have been appointed” by Starmer.
He said the UK government would tighten rules around lobbying and government appointments. He denied the release of the documents, hours after Starmer had faced questions in parliament, was an attempt by him to evade scrutiny.
“Mandelson reportedly leaked sensitive government documents. Starmer knew Mandelson had stayed close friends with Epstein after the conviction for child prostitution, but made him ambassador anyway. His judgment is shocking,” said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Tories.
Mandelson was arrested last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office, over allegations that he shared confidential UK government information with Epstein, who had convictions for procuring underage girls for sex.
Jones told parliament that Starmer’s follow-up questions about Mandelson’s links to Epstein at the time of the appointment could not yet be released until the police investigation was finished. A UK parliamentary committee is scrutinising what files can be released.
