Concerns that exchanges about US ambassador appointment may have been lost after theft of McSweeney’s phone
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Peter Mandelson will be asked to supply messages from his personal phone as part of the investigation into his appointment as Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the US.
In February, MPs forced the government to commit to publishing tens of thousands of documents after a controversy erupted over the prime minister’s awareness of the former peer’s links to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before he was given the prestigious posting.
The Cabinet Office is working to obtain as much information as possible about the process, according to No 10 sources. Mandelson has not yet been asked to hand over messages but will be told to provide everything he holds within the scope of the humble address, the parliamentary procedure that can be used to try to force the release of correspondence.
