Mandelson papers being withheld, says intelligence watchdog

Some documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US are being “withheld” from MPs, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has said.

Lord Beamish, chair of the committee tasked with reviewing the documents, said Lord Mandelson’s vetting file was one example of a document that had been kept back.

He said the government may have good reasons to withhold some material but did not have the authority to do so and ministers should seek MPs’ approval to retain certain pieces of information.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the government was “working to publish as much material as we can as soon as possible”.

Conservative shadow minister Alex Burghart said: “It is outrageous that Labour are trying to withhold documents about the Mandelson-Epstein affair from Parliament.”

He accused the government of trying “to pull the wool over the public and Parliament’s eyes”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “This thing reeks. Why is the government trying to cover up, again, the scale of the Mandelson mess? What could be worse than what we’ve already seen?”

In February, MPs voted to force the government to publish all papers relating to the appointment through a parliamentary process called a humble address.

The government initially opposed the motion arguing that it did not want to publish material that could damage national security or diplomatic relations.

However, in a last-minute compromise it agreed to first send sensitive documents to the Intelligence and Security Committee, who would decide what could and could not be published.

The first tranche of documents was published in March.

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In his statement, Lord Beamish said the committee has reached a decision on all the redactions requested by government in the 337 documents referred to it, and that it is now for the government to publish the documents within 28 sitting days.

However, he listed a number of concerns about how the government had responded to the humble address.

“The committee has been told that certain documents are being withheld from the process,” he said, adding: “The prime example is a vetting file held by UK Security Vetting (UKSV).”

Last month, it was revealed that UKSV had recommended against clearing Lord Mandelson for the job, but the Foreign Office had nevertheless given him clearance.

Lord Beamish also said the government was redacting documents “too broadly – particularly in the case of personal information”.

He said “no body has been commissioned to review those redactions and assure Parliament that they are within the spirit of the humble address”.

Separately, he said it was “extraordinary to see how much government business appears to be being conducted over unofficial systems”.

“Lengthy WhatsApp conversations between senior officials and ministers appear now to be the format by which government policy is formulated.”

He said the committee had raised the issue with the last government and that it was “disappointing” to see that the practice was continuing.

This was, he argued, resulting in a “lack of an audit trail” that was “unacceptable in government”.

On 11 March, the government said it was redacting documents to conceal details including people’s phone numbers, the identity of junior civil servants, personal data of third parties and legal professional privilege.

Lord Beamish said the committee had told the government the humble address did not allowed for those types of redactions and that the government should ask Parliament’s permission to remove those aspects.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “The government takes its obligations to Parliament and the protection of our national security extremely seriously.

“We have been clear that the public deserve transparency and we are committed to complying with the humble address in full.

“Redactions will only be made where necessary and in a way which is transparent to the House.”

Sir Keir Starmer announced he would be appointing Lord Mandelson to the Washington position in December 2024, saying he would bring “unrivalled experience to the role”.

However, nine months later Lord Mandelson was sacked after further revelations came to light about his long-standing friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Lord Mandelson has said his friendship with Epstein was a “terrible mistake” but insisted he “never saw anything in [Epstein’s] life… that would give me any reason to suspect what this evil monster was doing”.

MPs from across the parties have been highly critical of the prime minister’s decision to give Lord Mandelson the job.