It's difficult to see how Starmer can put this right

In the end, the first drop of the Mandelson files contained neither a smoking gun nor bombshell revelation.

The most newsworthy elements in this 147-page document detailing the vetting, appointment and severance of the ex-US ambassador were the eyewatering £75,000 payoff Peter Mandelson received for being sacked - he had asked for near £550,000 - and the revelation the prime minister's national security adviser Jonathan Powell thought the process was "unusual" and "weirdly rushed". We already knew, because the PM admitted it in the House of Commons, that Sir Keir Starmer was aware of an "ongoing relationship" between Lord Mandelson and the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Follow: Politics latest But to see in black and white the red flags being raised in a two-page due diligence report put together by the cabinet office was damning for the PM. Because it confirms that the PM was told the relationship between the pair was "particularly close" and continued well after Epstein was "first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008" for sex.

It was flagged to Sir Keir that "Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein's house while he was in jail in June 2009" and noted there was "general reputational risk" over his relationship with Epstein. It warned the PM that a political appointment - Lord Mandelson - rather than a diplomatic one was more risky: "If anything goes wrong, you could be more exposed as the individual is more connected to you personally." Concerns raised The Mandelson files also revealed that Mr Powell, one of Sir Keir's most trusted advisers, found Lord Mandelson's appointment in December 2024 was "weirdly rushed" and that he had been "particularly cautious about the appointment".

Minutes of a call in September 2025 show that Mr Powell had "raised concerns about the individual and reputation" to Morgan McSweeney, the PM's then chief of staff, and adds: "MM responded that the issues had been addressed." Sir Philip Barton, the Foreign Office's top civil servant at the time of Lord Mandelson's appointment, "also had reservations.