It was always a balance between risk and reward: Sir Keir Starmer knew that when he appointed Peter Mandelson to the plum job as UK ambassador to Washington.
In late 2024, Starmer overruled his own lawyerly instincts and the advice of some of his security advisors, and relied on the recommendations of his then chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and communications director, Matthew Doyle. He was taking a plunge into the unknown. Now, it’s a decision that may define his premiership.
Starmer’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, said the appointment of Mandelson as ambassador was “weirdly rushed” and “unusual”, the files show, confirming The i Paper’s reporting that No 10 sped up the appointment and leaned on the Foreign Office. Starmer’s Principle Private Secretary, Nin Pandit, asked the Foreign Office to press on “at pace” so Mandelson could be in post before Donald Trump’s second inauguration as US President in early 2025.
Powell, who was Tony Blair’s chief of staff before being brought back into No 10 by Starmer to advise on defence and security matters, “raised concerns” at the time with McSweeney. Philip Barton, the former permanent secretary of the Foreign Office “also had reservations about the appointment”. And if you already had a low opinion of Mandelson, reading these files, forced out into the open by Parliament, isn’t going to improve that view. There were gasps of revulsion in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon as details were revealed.
Mandelson never seemed to get what he had done wrong, even as a fresh tranche of documents released in September forced Starmer to fire him. One email in the files says that Mandelson opened negotiations after he was sacked as ambassador to the US by asking the Treasury for a payout of £547,201. In the end, the Government agreed to a settlement of £75,000.
Mark Power, the chief people officer at the Foreign Office, sent a note to colleagues following a meeting with Mandelson that he could go public with his complaints. Power wrote: “There is a potential, that absent a positive indication, Peter goes public on some of his claims so there is some urgency.”
Mandelson denies requesting more than half a million in severance pay, according to the BBC. The idea that Mandelson was gearing up to appeal to public opinion is bizarre, but also central to his playbook.
Even in January this year, in an interview with the BBC, Mandelson refused to say sorry for maintaining his friendship with the convicted paedophile, arguing that, as a gay man, he never saw the trafficked women in Jeffrey Epstein’s life. He apologised for his friendship with Epstein days after. Later that month, the peer again attempted to rehabilitate his reputation with a glossy shoot for The Times Magazine.
In a 2002 email requesting a meeting between Blair and Epstein, Mandelson writes of his billionaire friend: “He is young and vibrant. He is safe (whatever that means) and [former US president Bill] Clinton is now doing a lot of travelling with him.” We, grimly, now know exactly what that means. By the time of Mandelson’s appointment, the connection between him and Epstein was well established however much Starmer protests that Mandelson “lied” during his appointment process.
Epstein had a peculiar hold over Mandelson. The New Labour stalwart had an unrivalled influence over McSweeney and Doyle, mentored in his likeness.
Doyle is a “personal friend” of Lord Mandelson and had a “number of conversations” with McSweeney over the appointment. Labour’s left is furious at the cosiness of the connections.
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Starmer’s defenders claim they needed an extraordinary candidate to deal with Trump’s erratic administration. But former UK Ambassador to Washington Karen Pierce was doing a fine job already. At the time, one of Starmer’s team told me keeping Pierce in post would be a good idea.
In Labour circles, Mandelson was always said to want to succeed his grandfather Herbert Morrison, who served as Foreign Secretary. The UK’s man in Washington was a very good runner-up prize.
Unfortunately for Starmer, the risk was far greater than the reward. What’s more, the Prime Minister’s judgment is found wanting.
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