Chris Mason: Decision to appoint Mandelson continues to inflict damage

This is a snapshot, an insight into how modern government functions.

Ministers communicating with each other by phone, by email, by WhatsApp – text exchanges a real time substitute for snatched verbal conversation.

They capture contemporaneous mood, instinct and private views.

The ongoing trawling of the best part of 1,500 pages has mileage in it yet and we will continue to read through those documents.

Among the consequences already – the seizing by the Conservatives of Pat McFadden’s private remarks about the alleged squeamishness of Labour MPs to cut benefits.

The now work and pensions secretary described conversations he had with other Labour politicians about the welfare system and public spending in a pretty blunt way.

“Every meeting I have is ‘who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others’,” he wrote to Lord Mandelson. “They’re asking the wrong questions.”

It won’t be the last we hear of that.

And we can see there’s something missing: when it comes to those stories in recent weeks about the appointment of Peter Mandelson, and his vetting, we’re none the wiser on the specifics because the information about the process was not among these documents.

Key messages between Mandelson and ministers so far

Who is Peter Mandelson?

But two things stand out about the context of this now, versus earlier revelations in this saga.

Firstly, diminishing returns have kicked in – how much more capacity among the public is there really for jaw dropping revelation about the Lord Mandelson soap opera?

And secondly, the obvious political corollary of all this – the political damage inflicted on the prime minister – happens against a backdrop of his authority draining anyway after last month’s election results and a leadership race in all but name going on under his nose.

But clearly the government’s week would be rather better without all of this.

The bad news boomerang of Lord Mandelson’s appointment continues to whizz around and whack this government at regular intervals – and inflict ongoing headaches.

And, whenever the moment comes and Sir Keir Starmer is looking back on his time at No10 (however long or short his tenure turns out to be), his decision to send Lord Mandelson to Washington will be a central part of the critique he and others offer about the big calls he made – and the ones he got wrong.

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