MANDELSON REFUSED TO HAND OVER PHONE – Parliamentary Inquiry into his appointment release 2nd tranche of data today at 2pm
Lord Mandelson refused to hand over messages from his personal phone for release as part of the parliamentary inquiry into his appointment.
The final tranche of the Mandelson files was released at just after 2pm today, with more than 1,500 pages of documents relating to the disgraced peer’s time as US ambassador made public.
However, a note released alongside the documents said: “On March 31 the [Cabinet Office] wrote to Peter Mandelson – via his solicitors – to request any information held on his personal phone. Peter Mandelson declined to comply with this request. The Government has no further recourse to search the personal devices of Peter Mandelson.”
The refusal will raise questions about potentially crucial information and correspondence that is missing from Monday’s release.
Other sections of the document are heavily redacted and there are just two sets of messages between Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s former chief of staff, and Lord Mandelson. Mr McSweeney’s phone, which may have contained messages relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment, was stolen in central London in October.
Sir Keir Starmer’s absence from the Mandelson files “beggars belief”, the Conservatives have said. Speaking in the Commons, Alex Burghart, a Tory frontbencher, said: “In all of these documents the Prime Minister’s presence is almost non-existent, almost non-existent. Despite the fact he was appointing a man to be head of our most senior mission, we have almost nothing in his name.
“It is as though somehow he appointed Peter Mandelson as ambassador without leaving any documentary trace of that decision at all. It really beggars belief.”
