UK minister admits leaked Peter Mandelson texts are embarrassing

A massive document leak has plunged Downing Street into fresh political turmoil after a senior UK Cabinet minister admitted that newly released messages surrounding the controversial appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador are "embarrassing."

The dynamic escalated on Tuesday when Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden publicly addressed a trove of 1,500 pages of newly disclosed emails and texts, News.Az reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

Among the leaks was a highly damaging exchange from McFadden himself, who reportedly texted Mandelson: "Every meeting I have is who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others." McFadden told the BBC he wasn't hiding from the comments, outright calling them "embarrassing."

Compounding the security headache, McFadden revealed that some of his correspondence with Mandelson was stored on a personal cellphone that was stolen last year, rather than a encrypted government-issued device. Meanwhile, the document dump showed that Mandelson himself flatly "declined to comply" with a Cabinet Office directive to hand over data from his own personal phone.

The documents expose raw behind-the-scenes friction within the Labour government. In July 2025 messages to McFadden, Mandelson sharply criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s inner circle, describing the administration as "beleaguered and bereft." In contrast, other letters showed Mandelson desperately lobbying then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy for the Washington job, writing, "I would make sure you never regret it."

Starmer originally appointed Mandelson to the high-profile diplomatic post in December 2024, only to sack him nine months later when toxic new revelations surfaced regarding Mandelson's past relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The scandal deepened following a media investigation revealing Mandelson had actually failed his initial security vetting—a decision the Foreign Office later overrode.

While the Prime Minister’s office defended the document release as a display of "unprecedented transparency," Starmer is facing aggressive calls to resign from critics who accuse him of misleading Parliament by previously claiming that "full due process" had been followed.

News.Az 

By Aysel Mammadzada