Disgraced peer Peter Mandelson was directly involved in helping Morgan McSweeney select Labour’s parliamentary candidates ahead of the 2024 general election, a party whistleblower told The i Paper.
The Labour source revealed how Mandelson helped to identify potential candidates who were seen as too left-wing to run for the party.
He was given access to a secret Google spreadsheet of potential candidates McSweeney and his allies used, the source said.
A Labour Party spokesperson said Mandelson had “no role” in official candidate selection, but The i Paper understands the spreadsheet was an ‘off the books’ exercise conducted amid the power struggles within the party.
The revelation shows the extent of Mandelson’s direct involvement in Labour’s internal politics in the run-up to Starmer’s landslide victory and his influence over the bitter battle to gain control of the direction of the party.
During the 2024 campaign he offered advice on campaigning and policy and months later was appointed UK ambassador to Washington.
It also piles more pressure on McSweeney, No 10’s chief of staff.
He is already facing criticism from Labour MPs as he pushed for Mandelson’s appointment in late 2024, despite the evident risks associated with a man who was twice sacked from the Cabinet.
Morgan McSweeney is already facing criticism from Labour MPs as he pushed for Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in late 2024 (Photo: Steve Back)The document was “off the books” and not officially used by party staff involved in candidate selection because even though Sir Keir Starmer had taken over the Labour leadership in 2020, some Labour staff remained loyal to his far-left predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Peter Mandelson had no role in selecting candidates ahead of the 2024 General Election.
“All candidate selections were carried out in compliance with the Labour Party rule book and procedures agreed by the National Executive Committee.”
The newly released batch of emails revealing further sordid details of Mandelson’s links to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have also raised new questions about whether the prime minister and his team sufficiently questioned Mandelson before his appointment.
Even though Downing Street has sought to be on the front foot this week by volunteering on the record statements marking each new development and seeking to pre-empt a Conservative attempt to extract details of the vetting process prior to his appointment, Labour MPs are on the hunt for someone to blame.
A Labour MP said the MP they were “agog” at No 10’s handling of the scandal. Asked about Mandelson, another Labour MP just shook their head in sorrow. A third MP said they thought McSweeney’s departure is a “matter of when, not if.”
The secret spreadsheet used to vet Labour MPs
The Google document, seen by the whistleblower, and dating from the years before candidates were selected to stand for the Labour Party allowed live sharing and comments from participants about whether people in the wider Labour movement would be suitable to stand for Parliament to weed out any with hard-left views or who would be otherwise unsuitable.
“The comments included whether people had done something in the Corbyn era or where they stood on policy positions,” the Labour source told The i Paper.
squareNHSFaster cancer tests at local hospital of your choice to slash treatment waits
Read More
“Peter [Mandelson] knew all the characters at all different levels from unions and councillors upwards.
“This wasn’t a macro, oversight thing, he was very involved in all the details; I think he enjoyed it.
“He was involved in all the personalities and the mechanics including asking the question of who do we want in which seat and where should they stand. It was party organising. How do we stop people standing where we don’t want them?” the source added.
The document was also shared by Matt Faulding, a former deputy director of Blairite think-tank Progress. During the election he worked alongside Matt Pound, special adviser to David Evans, Labour’s general secretary.
In the run-up to the election, Faulding, a protegee of McSweeney, drew up shortlists of candidates. This drew the ire of left-leaning members of the Labour Party who complained of being shut out.
McSweeney’s time is now running out
A young McSweeney had an early work placement at Labour HQ in Millbank Tower, monitoring press coverage to rebut Conservative attacks, answering to Mandelson.
His former boss became a mentor and the two remained politically close. Last June, Mandelson was a guest speaker at a fundraiser for Labour MP Imogen Walker, McSweeney’s wife.
As more details emerged of how Mandelson had apparently betrayed his colleagues, including leaking potentially market-sensitive information to Epstein, Labour sources were further split on whether McSweeney would survive Mandelson’s disgrace.
One Labour source said: “Morgan has Keir’s full backing and we wouldn’t have won the election without him.”
But another disagreed, saying: “I do think this crisis risks becoming terminal for Morgan. He made a huge call to bring Mandelson in and got it wrong.”
Mandelson has quit the upper chamber and faces a Metropolitan Police investigation for alleged misconduct in public office after files released by the US Department of Justice appeared to show internal government information on the response to the global financial crisis in 2009 was sent to Epstein.
Your next read
square BY-ELECTION ExclusiveOperation stop Farage: New tactical voting plan for Starmer’s critical by-election
square BENEFIT CAP Exclusive60,000 families will be hit by second benefit limit after two-child cap axed
square POLITICS NEWSPolice investigate Mandelson after No 10 hands over Epstein dossier
square POLITICS radio_button_checked LIVE‘I regret appointing him’: Starmer accuses Mandelson of lying to No 10
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Wednesday there was a sense of betrayal from Mandelson’s actions.
“You can see the outrage across the political spectrum and from people up and down our country,” he told Times Radio.
“I cannot state strongly enough how bitterly that betrayal feels for those of us in the Labour Party who feel very personally let down and also feel that he, as well as betraying two prime ministers, betraying our country and betraying Epstein’s victims, has fundamentally betrayed our values and the things that motivate us and the things that brought us into politics, which is public service and national interest, not self-service and self-interest.”
Mandelson has been approached for comment.
Hence then, the article about mandelson was given secret spreadsheet to vet left wing mps in labour power struggle was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Mandelson was given secret spreadsheet to vet left-wing MPs in Labour power struggle )
Also on site :
- Ann Godoff, Penguin Press Founder and Editor, Dies at 76
- Starmer urges voters to reject ‘toxic’ politics in last ditch plea to win crucial Gorton and Denton by-election
- FL7726SH Boat: Everything We Know About Vessel Involved in Cuba Shooting